The State Comptroller calls for considering the removal of the polluting factories from Haifa Bay

Judge (retired) Yosef Haim Shapira chose to end his tenure as state auditor and ombudsman by publishing the report "Aspects of the government's actions regarding environmental pollution in the Haifa Bay" and criticized the planning committees that decided to expand the refineries and not expand them. "Government ministries and planning bodies have adopted positions that support development plans in the Gulf that unfortunately do not contribute to reducing pollution"

Partial measurement of pollutants, poor to almost non-existent supervision of the factories, planning authorities biased in favor of the tycoons and not the public, a cat guarding the cream (the factories are the ones that carry out the samples) and more. These are some of the serious findings of the State Comptroller in a special report he published this week, the last report of the outgoing State Comptroller, retired judge Yosef Haim Shapira.

The writer of these lines actually started his journalistic career (including understanding scientific fields and in particular furthering his studies in chemistry) when I reported on the issues of air pollution in Haifa in the 2006s as part of my work as a reporter for the local newspaper "Kalvo" which was at its peak at the time. The same claims were made then as well - deviations from the standard, fear of increasing the level of lung disease in the areas of Haifa and its surroundings facing the Gulf, the removal of all ammonia and the danger from the proximity of the refineries and petrochemical industries both due to malfunctions, and due to a security incident (as was the case later in the Second Lebanon War in XNUMX).

Even then, an entire chapter on the subject was published in one of the State Comptroller's reports, but nothing changed, on the contrary, the situation worsened. The transfer of the refineries from government to private hands did not improve the situation to say the least. Several unusual events, including a fire that broke out in the refineries on 25/12/2017, the cancellation of the work of a research team from the Technion and the University of Haifa, and the approval of the expansion given to the refineries brought to public awareness for the first time since the refineries were established almost a century ago - that they can also be taken out of there. Now the State Comptroller also joins this position, albeit cautiously.

The state auditor, judge (retired) Yosef Haim Shapira, published (24/06/2019), a special audit report Aspects of the government's actions regarding air pollution in Haifa Bay.

The State of Israel is a developed country that covers a small geographical area and is characterized by a high rate of population growth, high consumption figures and a polluting industry. All of these cause considerable harm to the environment, which has negative effects on human health, on the flora and fauna and on the air, soil and water resources. The Haifa Bay area is one of the most prominent centers of environmental pollution in Israel. Close to population concentrations, intensive industrial activity is concentrated there, including, among other things, refineries, fuel storage facilities, chemical and petrochemical plants and other industrial plants. In addition, there are national infrastructures in the Gulf region, including a seaport, an airport and a power station.

This report concerns the future of our lives in areas of environmental pollution centers and the risks arising from them.

Below is an expansion regarding some of the main deficiencies:

The national plan regarding the Haifa Bay: In 2015, the Office of the High Court formulated the Haifa Bay National Plan and worked to promote it. However, the report brought up deficiencies in the way the plan was formulated, in required subjects that were absent from it, in the way of reporting to the public about its implementation and the degree of compliance with the schedules and goals established in it, some of which have not yet been achieved Even today.

Air quality and pollutant measurement in Haifa Bay: There are still pollutants whose air quality values ​​have not improved, have improved slightly or exceed what is required by law. Such anomalies exist in other pollution centers in Israel.

Alongside this, the report reflects technological and other limitations (some of which exist worldwide) built into the monitoring and sampling system, so that a considerable number of polluting substances remain outside the monitoring and sampling system's ability to detect, measure and warn. This causes uncertainty regarding a significant portion of the pollutants actually found in the air and their effects on public health and the environment.

Air pollution and morbidity: The morbidity rate in the Haifa Bay area for certain diseases is higher than the national average - for example, excess morbidity in adults with cancer, heart disease and respiratory diseases, as well as worsening of asthma in children.

However, many years have passed since the need to deepen the research and the formation of a complete and updated health database and three years since the government's decision on the matter, practically nothing has changed - the data infrastructure available to decision makers is still fundamentally lacking.

Supervision of factories: A series of significant deficiencies emerged in the management of the continuous monitoring and sampling systems in the factories' chimneys. These deficiencies do not allow the Office of the High Court and the public to obtain a reliable and accurate picture of the concentration of pollutants emitted from the factories. These include: (1) failure of most factories to comply with the requirements of the chimney monitoring procedure, including failure to perform calibration tests of the monitoring systems in their chimneys. (2) For six years, 12 of the 14 factories in the Haifa Bay carried out monitoring of their 42 chimneys not in accordance with the monitoring procedure established by the Ministry. (3) About a third of the chimneys in the Haifa Bay did not meet the requirements of the chimney sampling procedure for many years (at least until October 2017) and were not sampled.

The samples in the factories' chimneys are carried out by sampling companies that communicate with them directly. This may damage the independence of the sampling companies from the factories that hired their services thereby harming the public interest.

Design bias

environmental enforcement: The Office of the High Court does not often exhaust the administrative enforcement procedures (for example by issuing warrants or imposing sanctions) and the criminal enforcement procedures.

Little administrative enforcement is carried out in the Haifa district, to the point of an almost complete avoidance of the use of stricter administrative enforcement tools such as administrative orders.

The multitude of exceptions, violations of laws and instructions, and mishaps in the Bezan Group's factories in recent years show the real weaknesses of the Office of the High Court when it comes to the use of the various enforcement measures available to it.

Statutory planning: TMA 30 - the outline plan for the Haifa Bay area, which was intended to settle the conflicts in the area and create checks and balances between the various needs - was not approved until the end of the audit in 2019.

A bias was created in the planning process of this TMA mainly due to transportation considerations and economic considerations and also, due to the involvement of interested parties in the matter. As a result, a large and substantial part of the area on which the plan was supposed to apply was removed from it. In doing so, the balance between the environmental and health interests and the sustainable and economic interests may be violated.

Moreover, government ministries and planning bodies have adopted positions that support development plans in the Gulf that unfortunately do not contribute to reducing pollution.

Tender for the construction of an ammonia plant: The work of the headquarters and the preparation carried out by the governmental bodies regarding the tender for the establishment of an ammonia production plant in the Rotem Plateau, before the government's decision on the matter, including the examination of the alternatives, They fell short and this affected both their ability to make optimal decisions and their ability to implement them.

For example, they did not deal exhaustively with fundamental questions related to the importation of ammonia and its storage; on the question of whether the state should even be involved in regulating the supply of ammonia; on the question of the economic viability of establishing such a factory; and in an up-to-date assessment of the needs of the economy and the emergency needs in this area.

Aggregate risks from hazardous materials: This is a danger of chain reactions in the Haifa Bay area, which is a small area, near which are populated areas, and which has a very large concentration of factories and facilities that hold hazardous materials.

Nevertheless, the implementation of the government's decision regarding the preparation of an aggregate risk survey on the subject continues unreasonably, which also results in the postponement of decision-making regarding the actions that will be required in light of the findings and recommendations of this survey, including actions to reduce the risks that will be detailed in it.

The continuation of the procedure stems, among other things, from the holding of an intensive and prolonged procedure of the participation of the factories in the Haifa Bay and their consultations - something that raises question marks regarding the degree of balance that the Office of the High Court takes and the degree of fulfillment of its duty to make a professional, independent and independent decision.

Also, the Fire and Rescue Authority is still not prepared for a hazardous materials incident that could cause a chain reaction in factories in the Haifa Bay area and fires that would break out in them.

In the opinion of the state auditor and ombudsman, judge (retired) Yosef Chaim Shapira, dealing with the weaknesses revealed by this report file requires the government to conduct professional and thorough staff work regarding the future of Haifa Bay - And it is appropriate that this be done by an independent public committee which will formulate its recommendations and the results of its work will serve as a basis for the government's decisions regarding the character and development of the Haifa area. As part of the public committee's work, it must decide on the question of whether the industrial plants should be moved from the Haifa Bay area or left in the area, in full or in part. The committee's work on this principled issue will be carried out with a renewed and careful examination of some basic assumptions according to which the government has acted so far.

Due to the existence of pollution centers and concentrations of other dangerous substances in Israel, there is room to expand the scope of the public committee's inspection so that it also conducts a comprehensive national assessment of the impact of industries and infrastructure on other areas of the country. At the center of the aforementioned assessment is the vision of the future economy of the State of Israel and the question of where it is headed.

The gaze of the country, whose area is small and whose population is expected to double and even triple in the coming decades, should be directed to the long term, to see how it can develop future growth engines that serve the broad public interest and promote industries based on clean technologies, for the sake of future generations.

The response of the Adam Teva and Din association

Attorney Amit Bracha, CEO of Adam Teva and Din: "The auditor's report says today what we have been saying for years. Haifa Bay and the levels of air pollution emitted from it are a health hazard to the residents of Haifa and the surrounding area. Environmental Protection Minister Ze'ev Elkin, upon taking office, made a plan to fight air pollution a top priority. Today's auditor states that these are plans planned without a sufficient information infrastructure and without a systematic methodology, inadequate goals, major delays in the implementation of some of the measures formulated in the plan, a lack of manpower for implementation, a lack of coordination between the relevant government ministries, and more. In the many inquiries we made to the Ministry of Environmental Protection regarding the urgent need for effective management and enforcement against the polluters, we have so far encountered a lot of talk and zero action. These days we are waging a legal battle against the expansion of the Bazen compound, which is responsible for a significant part of the air pollution in Haifa Bay."

Adv.ד Bracha adds: "I call on Minister Elkin to look the residents of the north in the eye and act to prevent the expansion of the species, to promote a worsening of the air and environmental pollution standards to act to promote an advanced, transparent monitoring system of the environmental information itself (emissions, permits, etc.) Factory and factory in the region".

Adam Teva and Din reference points for the auditor's report:

The auditor's report: air quality in Haifa Bay and the research concerning morbidity from air pollution in Haifa Bay

1. The problem: Lack of organized headquarters work during the preparation of the national plan for the Haifa Bay, and its preparation with a missing information infrastructure, failure to consider the manpower component, and failure to reflect the existing situation. (pp. 14, 18,19, XNUMX in the auditor's report)

Adam Teva and Din's solution:

Fast and complete completion of the set of research and health monitoring Until receiving comprehensive and reliable information on the extent of morbidity from air pollution. Until such a system is built, it is necessary to apply the principle of preventive precaution to take measures to prevent damage, complete information regarding the combined effect of many air pollutants, establish a transparent information system on factories and deploy innovative monitoring systems for remote sensing.

2. The problem: There is a considerable gap between the decisions and plans and their implementation, including difficulties in implementation and coordination with other government ministries that take part in the plan. Selected quotes from the State Comptroller's report: "There is a significant gap between the decisions and their implementation." (Chapter Air Pollution and Morbidity p. 54.) "In terms of the result - after many years have passed since the need for deepening the epidemiological research and the formation of a complete and updated health database, and three years since the government's decision on the matter was made - almost nothing has changed; the data infrastructure available to the decision makers regarding environmental protection And health in Haifa Bay is still fundamentally lacking." (Chapter air pollution and morbidity p. 59.)

The solutions of Adam Teva and Din: 

Increasing supervision and enforcement. Increasing the manpower needed to implement the plans. Having an inter-governmental coordination mechanism for the Haifa Bay similar to the inter-ministerial committee regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. A regular report from the ministry to the HHS regarding the progress of the implementation of the Haifa Bay national plan that will also include the actions of the other ministries that are related to the matter.

3. The problem: Easing the standards and target values ​​for air pollutants, as stated on page 34 of the air quality chapter in the State Comptroller's report, "the audit revealed that, contrary to what was stated in the speaker's announcement and the said quarterly reports, there was actually a considerable easing of the target values ​​for the volatile organic pollutant 1,3 - butadiene, belonging to the family ofNMVOC, compared to the values ​​that were fixed in the clean air regulations from 2011..."

Adam Teva and Din's solution:

The tightening of environmental standards. As part of the Clean Air Law, it is necessary to conduct an inspection and revision of the environmental standards (air quality values ​​and target values) once every five years. As part of the current revision, it is necessary to tighten the environmental values ​​and the target, and in particular to turn the standard for the carcinogenic substance benzene from a statistical standard (which is allowed to be exceeded several times a year) into an absolute standard.

Implementation of a spatial "bubble" approach that determines an overall emissions quota for the region. In the words of the critic: "It is appropriate that the policy of the Israeli government, through the ministry of the HHS, the ministry of health and the other ministries concerning the emission sources, should adopt a conservative position regarding the amount of emissions that should be allowed in pollution centers such as Haifa Bay." Of course, this approach is not compatible with plans to increase emissions such as the plan to expand In Zan, which the Ministry of Education supports, and which we demand to cancel.

the supervision and enforcement של The office For protection הסביבה About The factories in the bay Haifa

Adam's solution is nature and law: As we demanded in the appeal to the Supreme Court (submitted together with the Green Trend organization and the Public Health Coalition), the decision to approve the plan to expand the polluting industry in Haifa Bay should be canceled and it should be re-examined in accordance with the proper information infrastructure required for the administrative decision.

The problem: the lack of a complete and detailed information infrastructure on the current state of air pollution in Haifa Bay, as it appears on page 28 of the chapter in the State Comptroller's report, "It is not impossible that the information reported by the Ministry of Health to the public about the amounts of pollutants emitted into the air in Haifa Bay and the reduction that has occurred in which over the years it is not the most accurate it could be." So, contrary to the position of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which sometimes claimed that this data is available to it within the framework of the PLAS and other databases, the State Comptroller's report indicates that this information is not available.

Adam Teva and Din's solution: Re-examination and approval of a spatial TMA after public participation that will protect public health and the application of a spatial bubble approach to Haifa Bay. Only a spatial view of pollution, based on real data of emissions in the bay and the state of air pollution in the bay, can ensure public health in the bay. It must be determined An upper threshold for emissions together with downward flexibility, and thus to act to reduce emissions in the Gulf in its further development.

2. The problem:The Ministry of Environmental Protection does not use its authority to stop actual infections,As was recently revealed in the publication of the State Comptroller's report on environmental enforcement, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is unable to ensure adequate enforcement of polluting factories in the country.

Adam's solution is nature and law: The ministry must take significant measures against polluting facilities. In the legal toolbox of the Ministry of Environmental Protection there is also the option of issuing an order according to Section 46 of the Clean Air Law. This section, titled Administrative Order to Stop Use, allows the Ministry of Environmental Protection to stop the operations of a plant or facility in the event that an order is issued according to Section 45 of the Law (as was done with regard to factories in the ZEN compound) and that even today, deviations from the compound continue to be measured.

planning statutory in the bay Haifa and his affinity to my detriment around the

1. The problem: The lack of spatial and comprehensive vision in Haifa Bay The absence of an obligation to reduce air pollution in the Haifa area

Adam Teva and Din's solution: Re-examination and approval of a spatial TMA after public participation that will protect public health and the application of a spatial bubble approach to Haifa Bay. Only a spatial view of pollution, based on real data of emissions in the bay and the state of air pollution in the bay, can ensure public health in the bay. It must be determined An upper threshold for emissions along with flexibility downwards, and thus act to reduce emissions in the Gulf in its further development.

2. The problem: Many bodies operate without coordination and without transparency in making fateful decisions regarding Haifa Bay Similar to the multitude of statutory plans relevant to Haifa Bay, for many years various ministries have been examining behind closed doors various initiatives that will change the face of Haifa Bay.

Adam Teva and Din's solution: convening a public committee to discuss the issue while conducting a comprehensive and transparent public debate

3. The problem: Environmental impact reviews funded and initiated by the entrepreneurs

Adam Teva and Din's solution: Severing the connection between the initiators of programs with pollution potential and the reviews of the impact on the environment.  Similar to the auditor's position, it is necessary to examine different approaches and models in the world where the Ministry of Environmental Protection is directly responsible for environmental impact reviews and the consultants who carry them out.

The response of the Ministry of Environmental Protection

The Ministry of Environmental Protection recognizes the importance of state audit, and tries to draw lessons from it. Reducing pollution is the most important thing for the public and the most fundamental thing that stands before the eyes of the ministry, and as also stated in the auditor's report, the actions of the ministry in recent years have led to a change in trend, to the reduction of emissions and to a significant and consistent downward trend in the concentrations of pollutants in the Haifa Bay and in the country as a whole.

Today's air quality in Haifa Bay is no different from other metropolises in Israel. The Ministry of Environmental Protection invested a lot of manpower and more than NIS 100 million in the implementation of the national plan to reduce air pollution in Haifa Bay. During the years of the program, which began in 2015, a 56% reduction in emissions of volatile organic pollutants was recorded in Haifa Bay, even exceeding the target set in the program, and from the beginning of the decade to a reduction of approximately 81%; The first clean air zone in Israel was established in the city, limiting the entry of polluting diesel vehicles into residential areas in Haifa, and already in the first year of its operation, a reduction of about 20% was measured in the concentrations of soot in the lower city.

"During the years of the Haifa plan, we increased the supervision of the factories and tripled the number of inspection tours and surprise inspections of the chimneys, and we also increased the enforcement of the factories: we issued 42 warnings to 17 factories; we held 37 hearings for 16 factories; we issued 4 prevention or reduction orders to 5 factories of strong or unreasonable air pollution according to section 45 of the Clean Air Law we issued 6 Financial sanctions to 6 factories for 16 violations in a total amount of approximately NIS 9.8 million."

"Statutory planning: responsibility for promoting and approving plans rests with the Planning Administration in the Ministry of Finance. It should be noted that the discussions on the plan led by the Planning Administration ended in 2008 and after that there were only sporadic discussions in the planning system. Until about two years ago, the idea of ​​closing or moving the factories frombay It never occurred to me - and therefore, the review in 2019 is now a retrospective review of work done a decade ago. In this process, the ministry made sure, to the best of its ability, that its environmental requirements would be reflected in all the plans, but as mentioned, the responsibility for promoting the plans and approving them rests with the planning administration."

"Continuing to the auditor's statements regarding the future of the factories in Haifa Bay: the ministry considers it important that the government do extensive and comprehensive work on the issue. The Ministry of Environmental Protection supports any step that will lead to improving the air quality in the Haifa metropolis, including moving factories from their current location - and leaves the economic and energy aspect to the National Economic Council, to the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance."
from the Bazen Group, it was reported To the news sites that covered the report (for example Globes): "The Bazen Group will continue to operate and invest budgets in reducing its environmental impact, transparently, while complying with the world's strictest standards."

For a comprehensive article on air pollution in the Haifa Bay, including scientific explanations of each and every pollutant on the Eco Wiki website

More of the topic in Hayadan:

• "The Ministry of Health confirms: Haifa leads in the number of lung cancer patients". The HaM in the Kal-Bo newspaper, 13/3/87
• Hanukkah holiday: severe air pollution from industry in Haifa and vehicles in the three major cities
• The effects of climate change are more severe in the Mediterranean basin