The Ministry of Environmental Protection is warning: increasing the flow of oil in Eilat could cause leaks

The policy promoted by the Prime Minister’s Office to increase the passage of oil through Eilat ignores the professional recommendations of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and may cause leaks, the ministry claims.

A draft decision-making proposal discussed in the government stipulates that the ‘zero added risk’ policy in the Gulf of Eilat, a policy introduced by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, will be cancelled. According to this policy, the permitted level of emissions in the Gulf of Eilat, in particular for the Katza company, will remain at a constant and relatively low rate. At the beginning of the war, Katza requested a special permit to increase emissions, due to a security need to increase the oil reserves, and the Ministry of the Environment temporarily approved it. The decision that the government is promoting will increase emissions even more than temporarily approved, and will make the permit permanent.

“I don’t remember another case like this of an attempt to bypass the professional opinion of the ministry, in the 15 years I’ve been in the field,” Fred Arzuan, director of the national unit for the protection of the marine environment at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, tells ‘Davar’. According to Erzuan, Ktsa is one of the most problematic companies in Israel in terms of the risk of leaks, if not the most problematic. “This is not a theoretical discussion. Although the worst case scenario has not happened yet, there have been incidents. The biggest leaks that happened in Israel were because of KSA.” He adds that “due to historical reasons, Ketsa is subordinate to the Treasury and not to the Ministry of Energy or the Environment, except in relation to the emission permit.”

The Ministry of Environmental Protection has the authority to give companies a specific permit to emit hazardous substances, up to a specified level, by virtue of the Hazardous Substances Law. In accordance with this authority, he instituted the ‘zero risk addition’ policy, but the policy itself is not enshrined in law, and a government decision can cancel it. The Ministry of Environmental Protection strongly opposes the policy change.

“The security risk is precisely in increasing the flow of oil”

Another criticism against the cancellation of ‘zero additional risk’, which came up at the conference of the environmental lobby held today (Wednesday) in the Knesset, actually concerns the security danger. Many of the speakers at the conference, convened by environmental activists and MPs from the opposition following the decision-makers’ proposal, claimed that additional oil tankers could be targets for attack. According to this claim, damage to one tanker is enough to cause widespread damage to the Gulf, ecologically but also touristically, and may even require the evacuation of Many residents of Eilat.

“The security risk is precisely in increasing the flow of oil,” said Efrat Kedem Silver, chairman of the executive committee of the Keshet association, which deals with community, culture and the environment in the Negev. “The meaning is to paint a target on Ashkelon and Eilat [הערים שביניהן עובר צינור הנפט שמפעילה קצא”א, א.פ.]cities that have already been so damaged by the war.”

According to her, “We are talking about a pipe that is not a pipe, it is a strainer. In an inspection that took place in 2018, approximately 20,000 digestive tracts were discovered in it. We asked to know where the holes were, and we received slides with black marks. This is an activity that cannot be publicly and concretely criticized. Cut it out.” A. This is a commercial company that receives confidentiality, and is allowed to endanger the city of Eilat, the residents of the Negev, and Ashkelon. Government of Israel, we risk another evacuation in Eilat, can you handle it?”

The mayor of Ayelet, Eli Lankri, reinforced the criticism: “Our city has suffered so many blows in this war, and precisely now you are deciding something like this? Are you putting us in such danger?”.

The Minister of Environmental Protection did not come to the conference

The Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, chose not to attend the conference. Representatives from her office, including the director general of the office Assaf Zeid, explained that at the beginning of the war they approved the increase of oil transit temporarily subject to the request of senior government officials, in order to give reserves to the economy. as the proposal of the decision-makers asks to do.

MK Yoav Lahav-Hertzno (Yesh Atid), who and his party partner MK Mati Zarfati Harechabi are among the initiators of the conference, addressed the representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection: “In the proposal of the decision-makers, it was written that due to your strongly opposed position, a team was established that examined the decision and basically bypassed you.” The representatives of the ministry replied that they followed the procedures required by the legislation in the field, but they are not the legislative body.

Attorney Ma’ayan Porat Gantz, from the Legal Bureau of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said that her office’s position regarding the scope of emissions took into account the positions of the various parties, including Katsa, the fuel commissioner at the Ministry of Infrastructure, and environmental organizations. “We examined the environmental information, and in the end we made a decision, also according to the information from the fuel commissioner about the needs of the economy.”

In response to the claims about the need for fuel due to the wartime emergency, one of the representatives of the environmental organizations read a statement by Minister Eli Cohen from May 20, 2024, from a discussion of the Committee for Oversight of the Fund for the Citizens of Israel (the “Wealth Fund”). “Our responsibility is to ensure that we have enough stocks for an emergency,” Cohen said at the time, “and according to the information we have, we have the necessary stocks.”

The former Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Galit Cohen, also testified that the former Director General of the Ministry of Energy, Udi Adiri, told her in the past that the activity of KATSCA is not part of the energy security policy of the Ministry, but a commercial activity of Graida.