Watchdog says ministry head illegally helped Haifa ammonia plant
State Comptroller accuses Israel Danziger of breaking conflict of interest rules during search for new location for Haifa Chemicals storage tank
Government officials handling the search for an alternative to an ammonia processing plant in Haifa may have illegally helped the company that owns the plant, the State Comptroller said Tuesday.
Handing the report to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the comptroller’s office said some of the misconduct may have been criminal.
The report said the decision-making process and the way in which various options for relocating the site — ordered by the government over safety concerns — were weighed could have been structured to favor Haifa Chemicals’ financial interests over those of the public.
It specifically named Environmental Protection Ministry Director Israel Danziger as a key figure involved in the case, who the comptroller’s office claimed may have acted in violation of conflict of interest rules.
According to Channel 2, Danziger is friends with the deputy CEO of Rotem Fertilizers, which is dependent upon ammonia for the production of fertilizer.
The Haifa Municipality, which has been of the most vocal opponents of the ammonia plant, said the State Comptroller’s report showed decisions regarding the facility were driven by “financial considerations.”
“For a long time we have said that financial considerations are inexplicably taking precedence over the security interests of a million citizens of the State of Israel,” the Ynet news site quoted it as saying.
The Haifa Chemicals ammonia plant in Haifa Bay has become a hot-button issue since it was ordered to be shut down in 2013, pitting local residents concerned over the potential for a deadly chemical leak against those who say its closure would adversely effect the economy.
In May, the Supreme Court ruled that facility must be shut down by the end of the July, saying that even though the probability of a leak is small, the damage such a leak could cause would be unbearable.
In the ruling, which should be the final stage in the saga which has been ongoing for years, the judges said that, “the tank has no building permit and Haifa Chemicals is operating without a business license.”
The ruling followed an earlier decision in May by the government on a framework that will prevent a national shortage of ammonia. The court will allow one final shipment of ammonia to be delivered to Haifa to ensure a supply of the chemical until the end of July.
The ammonia storage facility owned by Haifa Chemicals was slated to be emptied by April, but the government asked that the court give an extension in order to allow fertilizer companies that rely on the ammonia time to prepare for its closure and prevent “a possible shutdown of the fertilizer industry in Israel.”
The government requested that the court consider keeping the massive tank operating for another two years until an alternative is found.
Local officials, led by Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, say that tens of thousands of people could die if the 12,000-ton-capacity tank should rupture, and that even more would be at risk if a monthly delivery ship that brings ammonia to the massive tank from abroad is hit by a missile.
The Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has threatened to target the tank with rockets in any future conflict with Israel.
In 2013, the government decided to shut down the ammonia tank in Haifa Bay by 2017 and to set up a new production plant in the Negev instead, out of concerns for the safety of the citizens of Haifa. The government also committed to ensuring a continuous supply of the compound until the new production plant was up and running.
Following the publication of a report commissioned by the city of Haifa that found the ammonia operations posed a serious risk to the population, a court ordered the closure of the tank where the ammonia is stored after arriving by ship in Haifa Bay. A tender to set up the new plant in the Negev failed in 2016 due to a lack of bidders, delaying the opening of any new facility indefinitely.
