Following deviations and violations of the conditions of the emission permit: The Ministry of Environmental Protection has issued an administrative order to the Carmel Olefins Company (CAO) of the Zen Group in Haifa Bay and will consider taking additional enforcement measures, including the imposition of a fine.
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The administrative order was issued by the Haifa District of the Ministry of Environmental Protection by virtue of section 45 of the Clean Air Law, for violating the conditions of the emission permit. The order was issued after the company did not install measures to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions in the three steam boilers at the plant, and did not meet the emission value of nitrogen oxides, in a way that caused strong and unreasonable air pollution. The purpose of the order is to reduce the amount of emissions from the company’s facilities immediately, and therefore the ministry set strict emission values for the nitrogen oxides from the company’s furnaces and to meet an emission rate of 39 kg / hour from all the company’s emission sources. Carmel Olefins’ main boilers are the steam boilers and cracking furnaces. As part of the emission permit, the company was required to submit a plan and install measures to reduce emissions from the steam boilers by January 1, 2021, but this was not done on time. / Hour for all company facilities and the use of cracking furnaces was limited to 8 out of 10 furnaces at any one time. The installation of the means of treatment in the steam boilers was supposed to lead to a significant reduction in nitrogen oxides. The company has approached the ministry several times with a request to postpone the date of installation of the steam boiler emission reduction measures until May 2022 due to the constraints arising from the corona eruption as well as what it defined as “economic difficulties” it encountered. After the ministry rejected its requests, the company approached the demand a few days before the date of entry into force, and suggested that as part of the installation of emission reduction measures it would make a more significant reduction in emissions from cracking furnaces (under the expected reduction in steam boilers).
The ministry examined the company’s proposal and found that these measures could not be satisfied, and that in addition the hourly emission rate for all the company’s facilities should be reduced accordingly.
The Minister of Environmental Protection, Gila Gamliel, stated: “We will not allow any deviation or violation of the conditions of the emission permit granted to the factories, and we will act to reduce emissions immediately. We will not hesitate to use all tools available to ensure a pollutant-free environment for public health.”