Greenpeace: Incineration Plans in Negev IsThreat to People

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

GREENPEACE: INCINERATION PLANS IN  
NEGEV THREAT TO PEOPLE  
 
Beer Sheva, Israel, 7 April 1997 - The Greenpeace  
Mediterranean Office warned the Israeli government  
that the heath of people living in the Negev is  
endangered by the toxic waste dumpsite in Ramat  
Hovav, and plans to incinerate the waste there just  
increase the danger. 
 
The call came during a joint press conference held in  
Beer Sheva today by a coalition of mayors from 
cites,  
kibbutzim,  villages, environmental groups and  
leaders of Negev Bedouins. (1)  
 
Greenpeace supports the demands of the community  
leaders who want an immediate clean up of the toxic  
waste dump site at Ramat  Hovav and a legislation  
radically reducing toxic waste produced in Israel.  
 
"Ramat Hovav is a symbol of Israel's toxic waste  
crisis," said in Beer Sheva Ofer Ben-Dov, Israel  
campaigner of the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office.  
"The Negev and its people are being sacrificed for  
the sake of a polluting industry."  
 
"The country's industry is producing thousands of  
tons of toxic waste every year, which regularly end  
up in Ramat Hovav. What is needed is a national  
strategy to introduce clean production methods in all  
industrial processes - and an immediate clean-up plan  
for Ramat Hovav," he said.  
 
Incinerators are a major source of toxic substances  
like dioxins and furans. Incinerators are no longer  
accepted in most of the developed world. In the US,  
the construction of waste incinerators has been  
practically impossible for more than a decade. (2)   
 
Greenpeace calls on Premier Benjamin Netanyahu to  
cancel the incineration plans in Ramat Hovav.  
Instead, the first step should be to characterize the  
toxic waste there and safely store it above ground. 
The long-term solution should be phasing out toxic 
materials in all industrial processes, in the 
framework of a national clean production strategy. 
(3)  
 
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last  
December visited the Ramat Hovav site and later  
warned Israeli officials that a major accident "with  
potentially serious consequences to human life and  
health" could take place in Ramat Hovav at any 
time. (4)  
 
For more information and visual material please   
contact in Tel Aviv Ofer Ben-Dov, Israel  
Campaigner, or Tirtsa Kisch, ++ 972-3-5102079 or  
++972-52433694; or Dr. Mario Damato, Executive  
Director of Greenpeace Mediterranean in Malta,  
++356-667167. emails:    
gpmedisr@diala.greenpeace.org  
gpmedite@diala.greenpeace.org  
 
NOTES:    
 
(1) Among the participants are the mayor of the  
Negev Mountain settlements (seven Kibbutzim and  
villages), Mr. Shmuel Ripman, representatives of the  
municipality of Beer Sheva, representative of the  
Bnai-Shimon settlements, and others.   
 
(2) Greenpeace Mediterranean has published a report  
on incineration. This report, "Hazardous Waste in  
Israel: Ramat Hovav or Clean Production"  
summarizes the problem of hazardous waste in Israel,  
with a focus on Ramat Hovav and the waste  
incineration planned  there.  
 
(3) Officially, some 7,000 factories produce in Israel  
annually about 100,000 tons of hazardous waste,  
with only a portion of this dumped in Ramat Hovav.  
An additional thousands of tons of hazardous waste  
are illegally dumped in nature, in landfills, into rivers  
and in the Mediterranean Sea. The Ramat Hovav  
dump site today hosts more than 60,000 tons of  
hazardous waste in huge ponds or in barrels buried in   
the sand, of which same are leaking.    
 
(4) Shortly after visiting Ramat Hovav, the EPA  
informed on 24 December 1996 the Israeli Ministry  
of the Environment that it was alarmed by the  
attitude of the people running the site, as the letter  
points out: "Their general opinion was that 'business  
as usual' was likely to lead to additional fires,  
explosions, and release of hazardous substances that  
could threaten the lives and health of people in the  
proximity of the facility...," EPA said in a  letter to  
the ministry. Last February, a barrel containing a  
pesticide based on organo-phosphorous substances  
exploded at the toxic waste dump site. No one was  
injured. 
 
END