(live here) – Last December, as I recall, a day defined as "historic" was announced, when the government set a date for the evacuation of factories from Haifa Bay. From the State Comptroller's report published this week (Tuesday 19/3/24) it becomes clear that it is still very early to celebrate.
According to the auditor's report, it is very doubtful whether the stoppage of the petrochemical industry in Haifa Bay in 2029 will actually come to fruition as stipulated. The report also shows that about 60% of the serious deviations in the emission of pollutants from factories in the Haifa Bay were not reported at all in the years 2022-2021. And that's not all...
The State Comptroller, Matthew Engelman, published this week, Tuesday 19/3/24, a follow-up audit report on the government's actions regarding environmental pollution in the Haifa Bay, which was designed to examine the state of government treatment on two main levels: all of the government's actions to promote a fundamental, long-term solution to the problem of pollution in the region, and the governmental actions to reduce the existing pollution from factories and vessels and ports in the interim period - until a thorough and long-term solution is provided.
This is when in July 2019 the State Comptroller published a special audit report that dealt with various aspects of the government's actions regarding environmental pollution in Haifa Bay. The special report pointed to the lack of a comprehensive government vision and a long-term strategy for the development of Haifa Bay while taking into account the need to reduce the air pollution that prevails there.
The follow-up audit revealed that real progress was made in a number of aspects, including the approval of Government Resolution 1231, which announced the promotion of a strategy for the development of Haifa Bay that would focus on improving the quality of life of the residents of the area, in part through the cessation of the activity of the petrochemical industry in the Bay, the establishment of an inter-ministerial steering committee and an administration Dedicated, the installation of regulations designed to reduce the emission of pollutants into the air from vessels - and the approval of the "Gate of the Gulf" national outline plan for the transformation of the Haifa Bay area.
The deficiencies noted in the previous report were not corrected or were corrected to a small extent
It was found that some of the deficiencies noted in the previous report concerning reporting to the government on the degree of implementation of national plans to reduce air pollution in Israel in general and in Haifa Bay in particular, regarding the supervision of pollutant emissions into the air from factories and periodic sampling in chimneys, were not corrected or were corrected to a small extent. Gaps were also raised in the handling of the issues that were not examined in the previous audit regarding air pollution from vessels and ports and regarding the information that the Ministry of Environmental Protection publishes to the public about the emission of pollutants from chimneys in factories.

The date for the cessation of petrochemical industry activity in the Haifa Bay is not anchored in a government decision
The state auditor found that the deadline for the cessation of petrochemical industry activity in the Haifa Bay in 2029, set in the work plan of the steering committee and the administration, was not anchored in a government decision, and therefore the degree of commitment to meet it is less. The main risks that may make it difficult to implement the decision are: uncertainty regarding the receipt of the budgets required for implementation, difficulties in approving statutory plans for the establishment of alternative infrastructures for the petrochemical industry, partly due to objections from local authorities and their residents to the establishment of these alternative infrastructures in their territory, difficulties in reaching agreements in negotiations with the factories on Cessation of their activities, and possible failure of tenders for the establishment of transportation facilities and facilities for storing energy sources.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection has not reported to the government for 3 years how the plans to reduce air pollution are being implemented
The Ministry of Environmental Protection did not provide the government for about three years (2021-2019) information and insights regarding the extent to which the national plans to reduce air pollution were implemented in the country in general and in the Haifa Bay area in particular. In this way, the government's ability to examine in these years (2021-2019) the manner in which it fulfilled its obligations to the public as approved in the national plans and to consider taking actions to reduce gaps if necessary, was also harmed. The public's right to receive significant environmental information was also harmed.
The report also found that in 2022 the rate of surprise inspections carried out by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and in which anomalies and serious deviations of the emission facilities were discovered was more than four times greater than the rate of periodic inspections carried out by the factories and in which anomalies and serious anomalies were discovered: more than five times the proportion of inspections in which an anomaly was discovered (in 8.3 % of the surprise tests compared to 1.6% of the periodic tests), and twice the rate of tests in which a serious abnormality was discovered (in 1.2% of the surprise tests compared to 0.6% of the periodic tests).
Similar gaps were also found in 2021. The deficiency is sharpened in particular, as the response of the Ministry of Environmental Protection shows that it is aware that periodic inspections carried out by the factories are done after actions designed to improve the inspection findings and therefore do not reflect the routine emissions at the factory.

In most of the cases where a serious abnormality in the emission of pollutants was discovered, the data were not published for public information in the database
In the follow-up audit, it was found that out of the 1,412 test findings published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection regarding the 18 factories where an abnormality was found in the years 2021 to 2022, with regard to more than half of the sampling findings (783 out of 1,412, about 55%) no information was presented from which it is possible to know whether there was an abnormality in emissions Pollutants from the chimneys in relation to the permitted emission standards. It was also found that in most of the cases where a serious abnormality was discovered in the emission of pollutants into the air from factories in the Haifa Bay in the years 2021 to 2022 (18 cases out of 30, 60%), the Ministry of Environmental Protection did not publish this data for public information in the database.
The quarterly sampling reports conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection on factory chimneys included incorrect data and it was not possible to analyze them and draw conclusions from them, so that in practice the Ministry did not have a centralized and updated report on the subject.
Since the previous report, seven studies on air pollution and morbidity in the Haifa Bay have been carried out with the funding of the Ministry of Environmental Protection that began in the years 2017 to 2019: four of them have been published, but three more have not yet been published. One of the published studies found statistically significant relationships between exposure to industrial air pollution of the highest degree between the years 1967 to 2012 and specific cancers and strengthened the hypothesis that environmental exposure to industrial air pollution in Haifa Bay increased the risk of cancer.
In June 2023, the Ministry of Health informed the State Comptroller's Office that after the completion of all the studies, he would be able to summarize his position regarding all of their results and regarding the causal relationship between air pollution and morbidity in Haifa Bay.
Regulations for the regulation and reduction of black smoke emissions from vessels have not yet been approved
It was not until 2022 that the Ministry of Environmental Protection published draft regulations designed to regulate and reduce black smoke emissions from vessels. These regulations have not yet been approved, even though these emissions include air pollutants known to have a direct impact on the environment and human health, and their emissions have been regulated in other countries for a long time.
Auditor Engelman recommends that the government resolutely implement the decision to develop the Haifa Bay as a prosperous and sustainable metropolitan area in accordance with the plan and schedule established while continuously allocating the required budget for this purpose. The Ministry of Environmental Protection must take actions to reduce emissions of pollutants into the air, tighten environmental supervision in the Haifa Bay area and make information available to the public on these matters.
Avihu Han, chairman of the incoming Union of Cities, calls for the promotion of Resolution 1231 for the evacuation of the polluting factories from Haifa Bay.
"The state auditor's report is serious by any standard. The report presents the failures of the various regulators - both the Ministry of Environmental Protection, and the lack of teeth of the Union of Cities for Environmental Protection.
The report presents a scandalous reality in the Gulf, a multitude of anomalies and emissions of air pollution from factories in the Gulf. It is clear that these failures lead to excess morbidity and death for the residents of Haifa.
The worst of all is that the Ministry of Environmental Protection has removed its hands from protecting the environment and the health of the residents of Haifa, has entered a coma in recent years, and does not produce powerful enforcement against the factories and the result is that the polluting factories. The polluting factories do everything they can think of and maximize their profits at the expense of the residents' health."

Han also said:
"I and the Greens of Haifa argued everywhere, and so did I in the Interior and Environmental Protection Committee in the Knesset, that the implementation of resolution 1231 for the evacuation of Haifa Bay should be budgeted. So far, there has been total disregard by the government ministries, which removed the budgeting of the decision from the agenda.
It does not surprise me that the chairman of Bezan returns to the point of departure that Bezan should not be evicted as if the government's decision does not exist and the desire of the residents of Haifa for us to Bezan does not exist.
As the incoming chairman of the Union of Cities and holder of the environmental portfolio in Haifa, I will work in cooperation with Mayor Yona Yahav to change this reality.
I will change the Union of Cities, and turn it into an aggressive union, which works for powerful enforcement against deviations in factory emissions. The factories will be taught that it does not pay for them to pollute the air in Haifa. The union under me will act against the attempts to slow down the evacuation of the factories."

The chairman of the Association of Cities of the Haifa Bay Area for Environmental Protection, Sharit Golan, said in response to the State Comptroller's report:
"The failure of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to act effectively and decisively with the factories means more pollution and less security for the residents of Haifa Bay. We are aware of the challenges and difficulties, but the disturbing gap between the results of the factories' inspections and those of the Ministry's inspections is further evidence of the factories' disregard for the guidelines and the necessity of strict supervision of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the need to increase the powers granted to the union. In the face of factories that often try, contrary to their duty and the provisions of the law, to physically prevent access to their facilities, we constantly work to perform surprise inspections, implement innovative monitoring systems and make available to the public in real time all the information regarding emission data which are measured in the factories' chimneys and the state of air quality according to the union's monitoring stations.
The auditor even rings all the warning bells regarding the poor preparation of the various government ministries for the rapid implementation of the government's decision to evacuate the petrochemical industries from Haifa Bay and it is appropriate that this criticism be internalized and implemented quickly. While BZN is doing everything in its power to drag out the time and establish facts on the ground, the state must stop any new plans in the complex and make it clear to BZN that instead of trying to change the decision or postpone it, they must start and prepare for the establishment of the alternative infrastructures, in accordance with the recommendation of the State Comptroller."
Yona Yahav has not yet started his term, we will give him 100 days. And we will see if he is telling the truth or a liar.
As I have commented several times in the past, I will have hairs on the palm of my hand before the Gulf is cleared of factories - all talk.
To immediately close BaZen and the other petrochemical plants in the Gulf ‼️‼️‼️
What about the factory workers? Nobody cares about them
This change will create new, non-polluting jobs, so factory workers can earn a living from work that doesn't poison their children every day.
The workers in the factories breathe the cancer they produce in the incessant abnormal pollution. Good question, what about them - did they consciously decide to shorten their lives? Leave broken families? Many times we wonder how someone agrees to work there knowing that he is harming himself and his family.
The state auditor's report is very important
As I recall, Lapid signed the control permit for Bezan Petrochemicals
The approval of the control permit advances Petrochemicals to acquire control of Bezan ■ The company is preparing to raise an amount of NIS 485 million by issuing bonds to acquire the controlling interest in Bezan, which is defined in the revised permit as 24% of its shares. Make one hand against the northerners.
And here came the "savior" - Yona Yahav, who contributed a lot to the situation where there is so much pollution in Haifa, as I remember not only did he not prevent the development of the polluting industry but he asserted strongly and aggressively that "there is no air pollution in Haifa at all"...
And just for information: the Israeli government is planning another large fuel port in Haifa Bay.
Klish was the only one who tried to fight this decision.
We will now see what the new old head will do.
And good luck to all of us
What does a false dove care? Came to the term of corruption of the municipality. Arranges jobs for all those who ran it like a hand puppet like Margalit as CEO.
Among the financiers and activists of Yona Kazev's election campaign were the petrochemical plant committees. We are not all innocent - he is in our pockets. His father and wife are now in the pocket of a false dove and he is in the pockets of a false dove.
The auditor's report reveals what we all know has been happening here for decades: these factories cause as much cancer as they want and lie as much as they want and make media campaigns full of fraud and misappropriation.
The government does not budget. They have a convenient excuse war economy. The excuse will go on and on. The evacuation of the factories will be buried and in the next local elections again everyone will say that they will fight and they will stop..
This is enough to lead our city in denial on all issues. From the electrification of the entire coastline because of the train to cancer in the entire Haifa Bay, Tivon Kiryut has been killed because of petrochemicals.