The Ministry of Environmental Protection imposed a financial sanction of approximately NIS 6 million on the Nesher cement plant in Ramla, for deviations from the emission and air pollution standards that were carried out in 2019-2020. The amount of the sanction includes a 20% discount given by the Ministry to the polluting company, due to the non-violation of the law during the five years preceding the sanction. The Nesher Ramla factories are under the control of businessman Len Blavatnik, who controls Channel 13.
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Due to repeated violations of the emission permit, an additional enforcement procedure is currently underway against the plant, and it may incur additional financial fines. Despite the multiple violations and their possible health consequences for the residents of the area, Nesher’s emission permit was renewed only recently.
The Nesher plant is one of the biggest polluters in Israel, and ranks third in the list of the ten biggest emitters of air pollutants. It is preceded by only two power plants of the electric company in Rotenberg and Hadra, which makes it the most polluting privately owned plant. According to the calculations of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Nesher plant causes the greatest economic damage to the public as a whole, due to the pollution it causes, either in greenhouse gases or in the emissions of pollutants that harm human health. Thus, in 2020, the Nesher Ramla plant incurred an external cost of NIS 817 million due to the emission of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the air.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection states that they take seriously the many malfunctions in the mapOn a recent eagle. At the same time as the enforcement procedure conducted by the Ministry, and while the plant requests cancellation and reduction of the sanction, the plant continued to commit the same violations: during the last two years, additional violations of the conditions were found, including in the last days and weeks, and sometimes without reporting them as required by its emission permit. For these, among others, the central district of the ministry recently started an additional enforcement procedure against the plant and its managers.
Damage to the health of the residents of the area
In three surprise samplings conducted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection in the factory’s chimneys, deviations from the fixed value of pollutant particles in the emission permit were found. In addition, during 2019, deviations from the fixed value for mercury pollutants and its compounds were discovered in the plant’s continuous monitoring systems, which are operated in accordance with the ministry’s requirement, in five different cases.
The financial sanction was imposed for a number of violations, which include, among other things, exceeding the emission values of particles and mercury and its compounds, contrary to the emission permit and the law and air pollution. Mercury is a heavy and toxic metal, capable of being transported over long distances and environmental stability that allows it to survive. Mercury may accumulate in ecosystems, and has significant effects on humans and the environment. This means that the activity of the Nesher factory in Ramla led to the emission of polluting substances in a way that could harm the health of the residents of the area. For this, the plant will now pay a financial sanction of NIS 5,991,680 million. The company’s claims heard at the hearing were not accepted by the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
According to Gideon (Gidi) Mazor, director of the Central District of the Ministry of Environmental Protection: “The ministry takes seriously the violations of the plant. The enforcement procedure we conducted against the plant proved once again that their emission permits and enforcement are critical to maintaining the health of the population in the vicinity of the plant. These days, we are conducting a procedure Additional enforcement against the factory, in light of additional and similar violations of the permit. We take seriously any malfunction or deviation of the Nesher factory.”