Activists seek crowdfunded pollution monitoring of Leviathan gas platform

As the gas starts to flow today from the Leviathan gas field, anti-pollution activists fighting to move the platform further from Israel’s shores are alleging a government cover-up of pollution data and are raising money to establish a non-governmental pollution monitoring system.

The conspiracy theories came to the fore this morning, when tens of thousands of residents of Israel’s north, from Hadera to Haifa, were urged to check the pollution monitoring websites of the Environment Ministry and local councils to verify that the flow of gas did not lead to raised levels of dangerous pollutants in the air and water. Activists have long argued that the start of gas flow from Leviathan’s platforms would produce levels of pollution that endangered coastal residents.

The websites crashed, sparking a furor on activist Facebook groups. When the monitoring websites went back online a short time after the crash, no dramatic spike in pollution levels was revealed.

Some activists are unimpressed, though, warning that the government data could have been tampered with. They are now launching a crowdfunding effort (Hebrew page here) to try to build their own pollution monitoring infrastructure.

The effort has already garnered 1,096 donors and NIS 230,339 ($66,600), still short of the NIS 1 million ($290,000) goal.