Haifa Municipality Threatens to Shut Down Oil Refineries After Benzene Spill

The Haifa Municipality has summoned the management of the Bazan oil refineries for a hearing on Sunday, threatening to halt operations and refuse to renew their business licenses. This action follows a series of environmental incidents, most recently a significant benzene pollution event on October 11-12, which led to the closure of two schools in Kiryat Ata and prompted unusual directives for residents.

The municipality, which is responsible for issuing business licenses to all enterprises within the city, including Bazan, is considering using its authority to issue an administrative cease and desist order or petition the court for a judicial order to shut down Israel's largest oil refinery. Bazan's current business license is set to expire at the end of October, making the municipality's threat to not renew it a direct move towards closure.

According to the municipality's statement, the decision stems from alleged environmental violations by Bazan over recent years, particularly the "unprecedentedly severe" benzene pollution incident. Monitoring data reportedly indicates ongoing non-localized emissions from within the refinery complex.

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav stated, "The days of lawlessness in the Haifa Bay are over. I will not allow anyone to hold the residents of Haifa and the Krayot hostage to polluting industry, nor will I allow their health and safety to be sold to capitalists." He emphasized that a factory endangering public health and safety cannot expect its operations to be approved as if nothing happened, especially when children are forced to miss school due to carcinogens in the air and the area is under missile threat. "We will use all legal authority at our disposal to protect the residents. Their health comes before any economic interest," Yahav added.

Bazan has not yet responded to the municipality's actions. The recent benzene pollution incident reportedly cost Bazan nearly half a billion shekels in one day.