For a whole year no samples were taken at factories in the Haifa district, deficiencies in the use of the information systems and a lack of transparency to the public, a lack of cooperation between the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the local authorities, are only some of the serious deficiencies that emerge from the report of the State Comptroller (retired judge) Yosef Haim Shapira, which was published today (d ').
The State Comptroller's report published today (Wed), which reveals serious deficiencies and failures in the supervision of polluting factories, most of which are located in the Haifa Bay area, only strengthens and justifies the concern of the residents of the Bay and their righteous struggle that was launched following the Ministry of Health's report indicating an excess of cancer incidence and respiratory and heart diseases in Haifa province.
From the published report on the Ministry of Environmental Protection's treatment of air pollution from stationary sources, it appears that the Ministry of Environmental Protection did not implement the regulations of instructions for the prevention and reduction of air pollution. During the six and a half years since the Clean Air Law was enacted and three and a half years since the law came into effect, no The Ministers of Environmental Protection, as of the date of completion of the audit (October 2014), the new instructions for the prevention and reduction of air pollution from stationary emission sources as required by law. And the regulations files that were installed according to the law for the prevention of hazards, have not been updated, even though they were installed decades ago, and one of the regulations files even Canceled in 2012, and no other was installed in its place.
The full State Comptroller's report: the treatment of air pollution from stationary sources.
The audited body: the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
A link to view the full document with highlights relating to Haifa:
The auditor's report_-_the treatment_of_air_pollution_with_highlights_relating_to_Haifa.pdf
Factories are not classified according to their damage to the environment
It also appears that in October 2014 - about four years since the need to reclassify the plants according to their potential damage to the environment was identified, the procedure had not yet been completed. The Industries and Business Licensing Division of the Ministry of Environmental Protection is still dealing with the issue, and in the Ministry's districts there is uncertainty regarding the new classification of the factories and the tasks required of them as a result.
Negligence in planning and performing surprise sampling
If that's not enough, Air Quality Division in the Ministry of Environmental Protection For about seven years, he did not update the directive that he sent to the districts of the Ministry in 2007, according to which a group of factories with a high potential for air pollution should carry out surprise sampling once every two years, and he did not send to the districts an updated and mandatory list of factories with a high potential for air pollution. Among the districts that did not meet the goals of the work plans they set for themselves in the years 2013-2011, and for most of the period the rate of surprise sampling of chimneys was less than half of what was planned, the Haifa district stood out, where there are many factories whose air pollution potential is maximum.
According to the report in 2013, no samples were taken at all in the Haifa district. And therefore, the ability of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to properly control the periodic sampling of focal emissions of pollutants made by the factories themselves, and to verify that they meet the conditions imposed on them in the business license or the emission permit given to them according to the Clean Air Law regarding focal emissions of pollutants, was greatly impaired.
From the data of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, it appears that in the periods between August and November 2012 and between April 2013 and January 2014, about 21% of the factories did not comply with what was required of them and did not perform all the periodic sampling that they were supposed to perform. As a result, about 46% of the chimneys in all factories were not sampled as required (1,229 chimneys). During these periods, all the districts of the Ministry almost did not take enforcement measures against factories that did not submit data on periodic sampling of pollutant emissions from their chimneys as required (between zero enforcement measures and two measures in the district).
Deficiencies in the use of information systems and publishing information
The audit revealed deficiencies in the use of the information systems and the publication of information on the website of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. In the "Emissions from Industry" system, which allows the ministry to monitor the hundreds of polluting factories and allow them to be tracked, data is not entered on all the factories and businesses that emit pollutants into the air that are registered in it, and there are many other factories and businesses where the emissions are not centralized, but they are not registered in this system at all but in another system.
In addition, the information on deviations from pollutant emission standards, information that is extremely important because it will come to the public's attention, is not always reliable. The information about the emissions found in the samples presented on the website is not clear to a non-professional user, nor do the explanations and notes that are attached make it clear. Until October 2014, the Ministry was content with publishing the data collected as they are and for each plant separately, and did not publish reports that include a compilation of edited data from the periodic sampling at all plants, in a way that would provide the public with a clear picture of the emissions, the level of abnormalities and their severity, as expected of it in view of Section 15 of the Clean Air Law.
The workers in the districts rarely use the "Industrial Emissions" system, and the information and data concerning the factories under their responsibility they store with them for their regular use. Also, data summary reports that include analysis of the data and findings, drawing conclusions and providing recommendations, are not generated from the system with the necessary frequency. It therefore follows that the office is unable to make professional and optimal use of central monitoring, control and reporting tools, which were supposed to be used for the purpose of setting policy, having a professional decision-making procedure, proper monitoring and control on the subject and warning of anomalies, and to ensure transparency to the public.
The audit also points out a lack of cooperation between the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the environmental units in the local authorities. The Ministry did not determine and did not transfer to the various entities (the Ministry's headquarters, the district and the environmental units) work procedures detailing their powers and the division of work between them in the various environmental areas, with the exception of work procedures in the field of electricity production that were established in January 2014. In addition, the Ministry transferred the amounts of financial support that go to environmental units in a way that does not increase In line with the voice calling published on this matter, which caused some units to receive amounts higher than what they deserve according to the language of the voice calling and others less than what they deserve.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection stated in response: "The State Comptroller's report shows where the policy of cutting in the fight against air pollution that endangers the lives of thousands of people in Israel has led. The Ministry of Environmental Protection prepared a national plan to reduce air pollution with a budget of NIS 680 million, but after the government cutbacks, only NIS 100 million was allocated to the plan. Despite the cuts and as a result of vigorous supervision and enforcement, the Ministry of Environmental Protection managed to reduce air pollution from industrial emissions by tens of percent, and the factories are required to meet the strictest standards in Europe.
"In Haifa Bay, air pollution has decreased by 70% within 6 years and the trend is expected to continue. The process of classifying factories according to their effects on the environment has been completed and the ministry is conducting surprise inspections in the chimneys of factories with high air pollution potential subject to budget and resource limitations. In 2013, in the absence of a budget, the rate of sampling in industry decreased, And in 2014, with the receipt of a budget, 257 surprise samples were carried out. The Ministry works continuously to improve environmental regulation in the industry and a year ago, at the initiative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, a decision was approved by the government to promote an integrated environmental licensing law in accordance with the most advanced European standards in the field."
Chairman of the environmental-social lobby and initiator of the Clean Air Law, MK Dov Hanin said in response to the report: "It is unfortunate to see that the government was not able to use the variety of tools that we gave it in the Clean Air Law to deal with the serious problems of air pollution. We know today that air pollution shortens life and causes many cases of death each year. According to the World Health Organization, there are about 2500 cases of premature death As a result of air pollution in Israel per year. This is not about issues of quality of life, but the question of life itself. The weakness of enforcement is also caused by the lack of budgets and standards for professionals and supervision, so this report is directed not only at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, but at the entire government and its poor order of priorities. Citizens' lives and health are at the bottom of the priority scale."
The Citizens' Association for the Environment responded: "During the last two years, we met several times with the people of the State Comptroller's Office and gave them the report data of the Citizens for the Environment Association as part of our project - industrial peace. In his report, the State Comptroller adopts the same conclusions that we published in reports on industrial peace starting with our first report published in 2010. Things we learned in Sisyphean field work in the field - after 15 years of struggle to gather information and cooperation with the Ministry of Environmental Protection and with the polluting factories ".
"The authorities whose role it is to protect the environment are elevated to their position. They operate without coordination, without a clear distribution of powers, the information is not collected systematically and is not published according to the law. This is the reason why the enforcement capacity of the Ministry of Environmental Protection aims at zero, allowing for a state of affairs of industrial peace while the factories pollute and violate The law. In addition - the fact of the revolving door is also known in the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the senior officials move to work at the factories, which seriously harms the ability of the Ministry to function as a regulator."
Mor Gilboa, CEO of the Green Trend organization, on the State Comptroller's report:
"The data emerging from the report show the exhaustion of the Ministry of Environmental Protection in dealing with the air pollution crisis in Israel. Regarding the Haifa Bay, the data highlight the puzzling and irresponsible dealings of the Ministry of Environmental Protection with the crisis. Just last week, David Leffler, the director general of the ministry, stated that the air pollution data in Haifa and Kiryat are no different from the rest of the country. The report's data finds many failures in the ministry's activities and its ability to act to reveal the true dimensions of the pollution. The report also shows that although in 2011 The Clean Air Law came into effect, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is not acting as the law commands. The latest publications of the Ministry of Health highlight the other side of the coin and the terrible impact that the pollution has on the lives of close to a million residents of the Haifa Bay. The previous ministers, Gilad Erdan and Amir Peretz, violated the law and did not establish new provisions for the prevention and reduction of air pollution."
Next week the "Northern Lands" appeal will be held, we demand that the plan be canceled and the other two plans be disqualified: the 3-fold expansion of the Zan, and the establishment of a new fuel port. Only the cancellation of the three plans can put an end to the danger in Haifa. The time has come for all those Knesset members who left in statements against the plans and promised the residents of Haifa Bay to take care of their health - to stand the test of reality and make sure that Haifa Bay is declared a pollution-stricken area - this will be a first and necessary step towards putting an end to the multitude of expansion plans that pollute the environment and endanger the health of the residents of Haifa"
On May 10.5, a discussion will be held regarding the northern lands, in the National Council for Planning and Construction
On May 19.5, a discussion will be held on the 3-fold expansion of the ZEN, at the National Council for Planning and Construction
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