“Real Linguistic Danger”: Ktsa is stretching the oil terminal in Eilat to the limit of the allowed amount

A group of environmental activists gathered yesterday near the Katsa terminal in Eilat, to protest against the arrival of an oil tanker in the Gulf. The tanker eventually arrived to begin loading the oil that had arrived there via a pipeline from Ashkelon.

This is the 11th ship to dock in Eilat this year for the purpose of unloading and loading oil, and the cumulative amount that passed there already stands at 2.185 million tons. The current ship will increase the amount to 2.5 million tons.

“The members of the Society for the Protection of Nature and the guardians of the Gulf of Eilat are here protesting against a huge oil ship that entered the Katsa beach,” said Yair Vala, director of training at the Eilat Field School. , for the natural values ​​of the bay and also for public health and the city’s economy,” he added.

“The ship poses a real danger to the reef and corals. Every additional tanker that enters is a danger to the marine environment, the natural values ​​of the bay and also to public health and the economy of the city”

Already exceeding the amount

The current toxics permit of the Ministry of Environmental Protection for Israel is 2 million tons of oil, so there is already an exception here, according to the environmental organizations that monitor this activity. On the other hand, the Ministry of Environmental Protection says that so far no exception has been recorded in the quantity for the current year (full response Maksata, which is fully owned by the government, did not provide a response.

Be that as it may, it is clear that KSA is already on the fence in terms of the amount of oil it brings to Eilat from the Mediterranean or the Red Sea and is testing the limits of the endurance of Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, on the eve of the end of her term.

The position of the minister and her office is the stumbling block that stood in the way and thwarted the initiative of KATA and private businessmen from Israel and the Emirates to transport oil in a much larger quantity from the Persian Gulf to Eilat and from there in the company’s pipelines to Ashkelon and the Mediterranean Sea (and in the opposite direction). According to this agreement, the number of oil tankers that will reach Eilat will increase to dozens per year, so the increased risk will increase many times over.

But the risk is already too great and any small malfunction can eliminate the corals in the bay and eliminate the main attraction on which the tourism activity in Eilat, Aqaba and Sinai relies. On the other hand, the benefit to the State of Israel is negligible since most of the oil is destined for export to the Far East anyway and Eilat is only a transit station.

The risk is already too great and any small malfunction can eliminate the corals in the bay. The benefit to the country is negligible since most of the oil is intended for export anyway and Eilat is only a transit station

Risk of irreversible damage

In the last few days, a group of environmental organizations (Tsulul, Ecofis, Ecotion, Desert and Sea Eilat, and Home Guards) contacted the director of the southern district of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Amir Salzberg, and warned him that the transfer of oil from Ketsa to the Gulf is on the rise.

This, despite the fact that the ministry declares a policy of zero additional risk, as it also told the court in response to the petitions of Katsa and the environmental organizations on the subject. The organizations stated in their application that the tanker anchoring in the Gulf this week would result in a “significant and blatant deviation from what is specified in the poisons permit” and that Katsa’s business license “A allows her to handle a maximum of 6 tankers per year.

In the last decade, there were over 20 leaks of various sizes at KATA facilities, and in the past year there were three fuel failures at the company’s terminal in Eilat, the last of which was an incident last month.

In the last decade, there were over 20 leaks of various sizes at KATA facilities, and in the past year there were three fuel failures at the company’s terminal in Eilat, the last of which was an incident last month

Thus, for example, in 2011, 1,000 cubic meters of oil leaked into the Nahal Tzin reserve and caused heavy environmental damage. In 2014, 5,000 cubic meters of oil leaked into the Evrona reserve, in what was defined as one of the worst natural disasters in Israel.

A protest against the transportation of oil by Katsa in Eilat. December 26, 2022 (Photo: spokespersons of the Society for the Protection of Nature)

The problem is that there is no effective way to treat these fuel leaks that cause irreversible environmental damage and the environmental organizations are calling for a stop to this activity and certainly not to increase it:

Transporting an additional 300,000 tons of oil in 2022 is a blatant, clear and deliberate disregard of the instructions of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the position of the Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Court of Israel. (…) Don’t allow the Katsa Company to trample over the Ministry’s instructions and shamelessly ignore the last gatekeeper left to protect the sea and the marine nature that is so precious.

(…) Ketsa proves that it is not able to deal with small leakage events. What will happen when the amount of tankers increases? What will happen when the volume of transportation continues to increase?

The environmental organizations’ letter on the issue of an exception in the quantities of oil did not receive a reply and the response of the Ministry of Defense to this article shows that they still think there is no exception. But beyond that, the environmental organizations fear that with the new government coming in, the insistence on the policy of “zero additional risk” may also change.

For now it seems that the ministries of energy and environmental protection will remain in the hands of the Likud. The previous Minister of Environmental Protection, Gila Gamliel (Likud), said at the time regarding the intention of the Israel Defense Forces to increase the amount of oil in Eilat, that “the red lights are already on and flashing.” It is not clear whether the next Minister of Environmental Protection will continue to block the request to increase the amount of oil or stop the The current activity of Ketsa.

Gamliel has already opposed the increase of oil transportation in Eilat in the past. It is not clear whether the next Minister of National Defense from the Likud will curb the increase in the amount of oil or stop the current activity of Ktsa

Comments

No response was received from KSA.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection stated in response: “According to the data provided to the Poisons Permit Commissioner in the Southern District of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, so far there has been no deviation from the permitted quantities according to the poisons permit. The Ministry will monitor the conditions of the poisons permit and make sure that there will be no deviation from the permitted quantity in the permit, and whenever there is such a deviation, it will act in accordance with its powers.

“In the past year, the Ministry of Environmental Protection has led the policy of zero added risk to the Gulf of Eilat, out of responsibility for maintaining the unique coral reef and the marine and coastal environment of the bay, in an era of climate threats and targets for reducing fossil fuels. Although KSA challenges this policy in several arenas, Where the court, the ministry will continue to lead it with all the tools at its disposal.”