The Ministry of Environmental Protection today publishes an optimistic annual report regarding the air quality in the Haifa Bay • The environmental organizations in Haifa say this morning: the report is full of manipulations of information, proves dangerous moves promoted by the Ministry of the Environment, and lights a red light regarding the conduct and interests in the environmental protection corridors
The announcement of the Ministry of Environmental Protection (we did not touch it):
The Ministry of Environmental Protection publishes a 2015-2018 summary report of the Haifa Bay air pollution reduction plan and a 2017-2018 Haifa Bay air quality snapshot report:
The implementation of the requirements of the Ministry of Environmental Protection led to a 56% reduction in emissions of volatile organic substances from the industry, even exceeding the target set in the Haifa Bay Plan; The results of creating a "clean air" zone from polluting diesel vehicle emissions are already visible on the ground: 20% reduction in soot concentrations in the lower city in the first year of its operation
• The Minister of Environmental Protection, MK Ze'ev Elkin: "We continue to act resolutely to reduce air pollution in Haifa Bay within the framework of the national plan, both from industrial and transportation sources and to reduce risks to the public. We are proud of the reductions achieved in industry compared to polluting factories and transportation, and the results will even continue to improve for the health of the residents of the area. There is still a lot of work, and the ministry is devoting many resources and efforts to improving air quality. We are happy that the results are evident in the field and we see them clearly in the numbers and the reduction rates" •
As part of the implementation of the program The National Council for Reducing Air Pollution and Environmental Risks in Haifa Bay and the Surroundings from 2015, And in accordance with the government's decisions, today (Monday) the Ministry of Environmental Protection publishes a comprehensive interim summary of The years 2015-2018.
The office also publishes today The report of the air quality situation in Haifa Bay - a comprehensive and broad report that includes all the data summarizing the activity in Haifa as part of the national plan. This report details the factories in the Gulf and their emissions, including trends and analyzes by sector (The reports from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
The outstanding achievements in the years The program (details below):
- Over the years there has been a significant improvement in air quality In the Haifa Bay: during the years of the program, a reduction of 56% was recorded in the emissions of volatile organic pollutants - which include carcinogenic substances and therefore the program emphasizes the emissions of these pollutants and was even successful thereby exceeding the target set (which was 48% in relation to emissions in 2014).
- We increased the The enforcement of the factories in 2015-2018: we issued 42 alerts to 17 factories; we held 37 hearings for 16 factories; We issued to 4 factories 5 orders to prevent or reduce pollution Strong or unreasonable air according to Article 45 of the Clean Air Law; We issued 6 financial sanctions for 6 Enterprises for 16 violations for a total amount of approximately NIS 9.8 million.
- A clean air zone was established in the city that restricts the entry of vehicles Diesel pollutes residential areas in Haifa - the first in Israel, and similar to hundreds of European cities - Already in the first year of its operation, a reduction of about 20% was measured in the concentrations of soot in the lower city.
- We promoted alternative drives and cleaner transportation in Haifa: 25 electric buses are operated in Haifa; 20 garbage trucks Compressed natural gas engines are operated as part of the municipal garbage truck fleet of Haifa Municipality; and an array of 100 shared electric vehicles - the first in Israel
- Improved monitoring capabilities Environmental and health: we added 47 devices for environmental monitoring in Haifa of various pollutants in the air and two mobile monitoring stations; We doubled the number of environmental sampling points to 8; And we raised the The number of pollutants sampled in the environment from 14 to 86.
Ministry of the Environment Continuously supervises and enforces all Haifa Bay factories, implements tight reduction plans Emissions and risk reduction from hazardous materials and invests a lot of resources, including budget and personnel. All of these together contribute and will continue to contribute to the protection and improvement of the health of the residents of the Haifa Bay their quality of life. The cost of the measures for the Ministry of Environmental Protection as part of the Haifa Bay plan so far amounts to about NIS 107 million.
The main contents of the report Annual report on the implementation of the program in 2018 and summarizes all the actions and results of the program Since its inception (September 2015) in the main areas of activity of the office in Haifa Bay - industry, Transportation, monitoring, and others - detailed below.
Industry:
- 56% of volatile organic pollutant emissions were reduced from industry in comparison between 2018 and 2014.
- The reduction of pollutants characteristic of burning fuels continued - despite the economy's delay in connecting the factories to natural gas. In 2018, the rate of reduction in emissions was Nitrogen oxides in 26%, particles in 13% and sulfur oxides -10%. due to the delay in infrastructure deployment Natural gas was delayed in reaching the original reduction targets for 2020.
- The installation and operation of 41 installations and mitigation measures was completed Emissions in 11 of the plants of the program between the years 2015 to 2018. Some things were completed before, and some after.
- We tightened the requirements for the licenses and permits of all 26 The factories included in the national plan, which emit volatile organic pollutants in the Gulf.
- Environmental requirements were also imposed on 24 additional factories which are located in the bay and are not in the plan.
- We increased the supervision of the factories. In 2018 alone 108 inspection tours were carried out at the plants of the program in Haifa, of which 42 were surprise tours. Results received Laboratory for surprise tests of 726 pollutants in 123 chimneys in 20 factories. test results The following are announced to the public in the Air Emissions Data System:
- All data from monitoring devices that pollute the factories' chimneys Advertised to the public continuously on the Internet - http://www.envihaifa.net/Default.rtl.aspx.
- In 2018, enforcement procedures were taken against 9 factories.
- We increased the The enforcement of the factories in 2015-2018: we issued 42 alerts to 17 factories; we held 37 hearings for 16 factories; We issued to 4 factories 5 orders to prevent or reduce pollution Strong or unreasonable air according to Article 45 of the Clean Air Law; We issued 6 financial sanctions for 6 Enterprises for 16 violations for a total amount of approximately NIS 9.8 million.
- · 49 Haifa Bay factories, even those not included in the program, will implement the separation distance policy of The Ministry during the program period and installed measures to reduce risks to the population and the environment By reducing the amounts of hazardous materials, switching to less hazardous materials or adding protective measures
transportation:
- A clean air zone (LEZ-Low Emission) comes into effect zone) The first in Israel. At the end of the first year of its operation, a reduction of about 20% in soot concentrations was measured in the lower city.
- As a result of subsidizing light truck travel rates In the Carmel tunnels as part of the program, a reduction of about 95% was recorded in the population exposed to pollution from traffic that passed earlier in the lower city. Shifting around 5,000 of these light trucks each month is leading For economic savings of approximately NIS 4.7 million per year in external costs from reducing pollutants and congestion on the roads.
- We promoted alternative and cleaner drives in transportation
in Haifa:
- 25 electric buses are operated in Haifa starting from 2017 and about 100 more are expected in the next two years
- 20 garbage trucks powered by compressed natural gas are in operation As part of the municipal garbage truck fleet of Haifa Municipality.
- At the end of 2017, a fleet of 100 vehicles operates in Haifa Electric cooperatives - the first in Israel.
- Actions have not yet been implemented by the Ministry of Transport for encouragement Purchase of 500 electric taxis throughout the country. It should be noted that the Ministry of Environmental Protection supported more than 700 Hybrid taxis reduce pollution throughout the country.
- We increased the supervision and enforcement of polluting diesel vehicles. In 2018, we conducted 18 surprise enforcement operations in which we checked approximately 3,600 vehicles - more than 10% of them They failed the inspection and were taken off the road by order of the ministry.
- Installation of systems has been completed at all 97 gas stations in the Gulf Dedicated to reducing emissions of fuel vapors
- Regulations that the Ministry of Transportation needed have not yet been approved to install, which require the reduction of pollutant emissions from vessels - as is customary in international treaties.
Monitoring:
- We improved the environmental monitoring and sampling system in Haifa: We added 47 devices for monitoring various pollutants in the air and two mobile monitoring stations; We doubled the The number of environmental sampling points in Haifa Bay (from four to eight); and the number of pollutants sampled In the environment rose from 14 pollutants to 86. For the data of the environmental monitoring stations and environmental tests: https://www.svivaaqm.net/Default.rtl.aspx.
- The concentration of monitoring stations in Haifa Bay is the largest in the country and one of the largest in the world in relation to the size of the population and the measured area.
- All the monitoring bodies in Haifa Bay have completed the certification to the ISO17025 standard.
- A system was established for the collection, processing and analysis of data Morbidity by the Ministry of Health.
- We conduct 14 studies on environmental and health issues in Haifa Bay that won a total funding of about NIS 11 million.
Cleaning the Kishon soils:
- In January 2017, the complex environmental project of Excavation and cleaning of the bottom of the Kishon, in the framework of which 340 thousand square meters of soil were treated and purified Contaminated at a cost of NIS 220 million.
- About 250 thousand cubic meters of soil were removed from the stream Contaminated, mainly with oils and fuels.
- From the treated and purified soil, hills were built in the area The project which forms the infrastructure for the construction of a public park. The Naphthol Park is part of a plan recently approved statute
comments
Dr. Revital Goldschmidt, who works at the Environmental Research Center in Haifa (a civil organization that analyzes the pollution in Haifa Bay), told Lahi Fe:

The State of Israel falls to 5th place from the end In terms of air quality indicators, over 2500 die a year in Israel due to poor air quality - but the Ministry of Environmental Protection is going to issue a report this morning that the situation in Israel is great.
Will you believe them?
The report of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, which is about to be published this morning, is very disturbing and worrying.
The report is full of manipulations of information, proves dangerous moves being promoted in the GNAS office, and turns on a red light regarding the conduct and interests in the environmental protection corridors.
In the ministry's report, you see trending data analyses, lack of transparency as a policy, statements that are inconsistent with the implementation test in the national plan in Haifa, the ministry's disregard of the McKinsey plan, despite the fact that the report shows that the only places where pollution has been reduced is where they have closed factories
And all this against the background of conflicts of interests in the office, procedures that are not in line with the law and the promotion of voluntary reporting by enterprises.
Very very very disturbing what is happening in this office!
We demand that a home inspection be carried out in the corridors of environmental protection to make sure that the public interest has not long since left the back door and that the actions of the office align with the requirements of the law, work procedures and their role as gatekeepers.
Epidemiologist Ella Neve's response

Failure of the national plan - Resolution 529:
According to the ministry - "in 2018, the rate of reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions was 26%, particles 13% and sulfur oxides -10%"
The only reductions there are in the documentation of the pollution - and in the safety of the residents (an aggregate risk survey was not published to the public):
It is not clear on what basis, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is again telling stories about pollution reductions that were calculated on a calculator, in any case this is not what the residents of Haifa meet in the air and we receive reports and photos from thousands of residents every day in our group (Mothers and Fathers Save Haifa and the Kiryat). Every time steps are advanced in the expansion of the oil industry in Haifa - the ministry makes promises about reductions in pollution, for example now that the Gulf port is starting to obtain building permits and pollution is expected to increase by the ministry's own method between 10-20 percent. Unfortunately, no national plan is in place - a- not regarding the pollution and b- not regarding the risks from the dangerous substances that are swept under the carpet:
Let's start with a - for example, we will refer to carcinogenic pollutants called particles - it is strange how the ministry draws conclusions about a 13% decrease in pollution in them - when two stations around the Bezen compound (Nesher monitoring station, and mobile monitoring station 6 of the Ministry of the Genocide) are missing in the two years between 2017- 2018 - between 144-158 monitoring days of fine respirable particles (PM2.5), which is about a fifth of the time that is not monitored and when there is no continuous monitoring on the Bezan fence of particles, and there is no monitoring on the chimneys to measure particles. How do you get to this result? Ask the ministry... with another carcinogenic substance - benzene - according to the Ministry of Environmental Protection itself - 2018 abnormalities were measured in 12 at the monitoring station "6" close to Bezan. Children in the area are breathing carcinogens of various types, the cancer is not decreasing, and the ministry continues to tell stories that the pollution is decreasing...
Last April (2019) there were severe malfunctions in Bezan. We checked this month - at the Nesher monitoring station - which are the unmonitored days? We discovered that 25 out of 30 days (83%) in April 2019 during the silence and severe malfunctions in Bezan were not monitored by Nesher. Obviously, this is how you find reductions, but not of pollution - but of the documentation of the pollution! If that's not enough, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has an official policy that if there are malfunctions (with no limit on how many are allowed) and if a factory causes a violation of the environmental standards of the Clean Air Act, the violations are deleted.
According to government decision 529 - particles were supposed to decrease by 50 percent but according to them decreased by 13 percent (which is undermeasured) sulfur dioxide was supposed to decrease by 75% but according to them decreased by 10%, which is undermeasured -
In other words - the national plan is not meeting its goals and in the meantime more polluting infrastructures are being added to Haifa: the Gulf Port which continues to be built, the Northern Lands Plan which enables the expansion of storage and refining and petrochemical plants in Haifa Bay.
Regarding the dangerous substances - the aggregate risk surveys that the national plan established were not presented to the public, and the ministry systematically avoids responding to this issue -
- In the report - "The Bay Report - Implementation of the National Plan to Reduce Air Pollution and Environmental Risks in the Haifa Bay - Final Quarter 2015 Summary Report" the highlights for 2016 are stated:
"Performing an aggregate risk survey in order to estimate the risks to the population from hazardous material incidents"
- In the report "The Bay Report Second Quarter 2016, the National Plan to Reduce Air Pollution and Environmental Risks in the Haifa Bay and the Surrounding Area - it is written on page 2 of the report:
An aggregate risk survey has begun in Haifa Bay
On page 8 of the report it is written: Objective 2: Carrying out a risk survey:
"What did we do? An aggregate risk survey began in Haifa Bay. The area is divided into 4 complexes, separate risk assessments will be conducted in each complex and finally integration into an aggregate survey will be carried out. In 2017, the survey will be expanded to include earthquake scenarios as well as a risk survey for future sources of risk expected in 2025. This is in accordance For the changes known today in industry, commerce and residences, such as the construction of the new port, the introduction of natural gas, the evacuation of farms from crude oil tanks, the evacuation of ammonia tanks, and more."
In the report for the first half of 2017: on page 10, it was again promised that there would be results of this survey, but for some reason they are hidden from the public... and thus one can add more risks to Haifa Bay - to establish a port with unlimited storage of dangerous materials, to expand the storage of oil and distillates in Haifa and the factories Petrochemistry - and more.
The response of Avihu Han - the Greens of Haifa:

The response of the Haifa Greens to the report of the Ministry of Environmental Protection
The Ministry of Environmental Protection lost its legitimacy the day it allowed polluting factories to deviate from the standards by 150 to 300 percent. The factory is plagued by conflicts of interest. There is no real ability to measure and enforce against the polluting factories. In fact, there is an entire public being misled here and a huge advertising array of a plant in Zan, which is the main cause of air pollution in the Gulf.
After all, just about a month ago, a serious butane gas leak incident erupted in Haifa Bay and it became clear that there are no monitoring and leak detection systems for the entire Haifa Bay pipeline system. Where is the Ministry of Environmental Protection that is supposed to take care of public health. The ministry reacted after the residents of Haifa Bay smelled the gas for two weeks and only then took action. .
We must reorganize the ministry with a minister who will put environmental issues at the forefront of his mind and will not be a marginal aspect of his political activity.
Green Trend's response to the Ministry of Environmental Protection's report published this morning:
"The Ministry of Environmental Protection proves time and time again how disconnected it is from reality when it comes to protecting the environment. From reading the various reports of the Ministry, which point to an apparent reduction over the years, we would have expected to feel an improvement in air quality, a significant decrease in the number of patients with respiratory diseases among babies, and more. The new report shows that the main reduction is due to the closing of factories, and this is proof of the failed regulation. A good report is presented for the needs of survival, when in practice in Bazan (the oil refineries) there were increases in the emission of volatile organic substances and carcinogenic substances. When the ministry had the opportunity to implement Order 45 and close facilities in order to stop the The benzene emissions - choose to give up and continue to threaten.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection takes two steps forward and three steps back, and instead of fighting the factories, it sends the VP of Industries to the front, to tell the public about the "improvement".
We, the environmental organizations and residents, are no longer there. We don't need any more manipulative reports. We've had enough of them. Now we demand action! The residents of Haifa Bay and the mayors understand that it is possible otherwise, that this is not destiny and that it is no longer possible to rely on the promises of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Enterprises. The public woke up after years of harm and demands the change firmly and immediately. We demand the evacuation of the petrochemical industry from the heart of the Haifa metropolis and the approval of the "Green North" program of the Israel Land Authority immediately.
What can we expect from the Ministry for the Protection of the Tycoons? It is possible that Idan Ofer threatened with the Black Cube there as well.