Haifa Chemicals fined NIS 500,000 for operating ammonia tank without license
After years-long saga, court issues final closure order for controversial facility; criticizes state, regulator for lack of oversight
A Haifa court fined Haifa Chemicals NIS 500,000 ($139,000) last week for operating an ammonia tank for decades without a license, and issued a final closure order for the tank.
The controversial tank was emptied last September, after a High Court ruling, following a years-long struggle between the company and local residents concerned over the environmental risks.
“The business carried many environmental, safety and security risks and was a serious danger to public safety, and could have posed life-threatening risk in an emergency situation,” Judge Ghada Bsul said in her ruling, according to Ynet.
She pointed out that in 1996, the company’s application for a license was rejected. Since then, Haifa Chemicals operated the facility without authorization, and made no attempts to gain a license.
Bsul criticized the state and regulators for failing to deal with the situation properly and said, “There is need to find solutions that involve the regulator and government ministries, which for many years did not give the subject the proper attention.”
In addition to the fine and the final closer order, which replaced the temporary order issued last year, Bsul ordered the company to sign a NIS 2 million security deposit to ensure it does not breach the provisions of the Business Licensing Law for the next two years.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, who has long campaigned to close the tank, welcomed the ruling.
“In the name of a million residents today, I thank the team of legal advisers of the Haifa Municipality, which conducted this righteous legal struggle for so many years,” he said.
Haifa Chemicals said in a statement that it would appeal the size of the fine it has to pay.
The court “ignored the special circumstances of this case when Haifa Chemicals operated with permission, with the authority and knowledge of all the licensing authorities, which gave it the required permits for the continued operation of the ammonia tank,” the company said in a statement.
The tank, located in the Haifa Bay, was first ordered emptied in 2013, sparking a struggle between local residents, concerned over the potential for a deadly chemical leak, against officials, who said its closure would adversely affect the economy.
In its final decision on the matter in May 2017, the court said that even though the probability of a leak was small, the damage it could cause would be unbearable.
The court decision to close the 12,000-ton-capacity tank came after local officials, led by Yahav, warned that tens of thousands of people could die should it rupture, and that even more would be at risk if a monthly delivery ship that brought ammonia to the tank from abroad were to be hit by a missile.
The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has in the past threatened to target the tank with rockets in any future conflict with Israel.
In 2013, the government decided to shut down the tank by 2017, and set up a new production plant in the Negev instead, out of concerns for the safety of the citizens of Haifa. The government has also committed to ensuring a continuous supply of the compound until the new production plant is up and running.
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