The Israeli authorities finalized on Tuesday the emptying of an ammonia tank in Haifa bay deemed the most lethal in the Middle East.
According to The Times of Israel daily the Haifa Court for Local Affairs ruled by the end of July 2017 that an ammonia tank that the city council has fought to remove over concerns that it threatens the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the area must be emptied by mid September.
MK Yair Lapid who heads the opposition Yesh Atid party praised the court’s ruling saying in a statement that it was important “for the safety of the residents of Haifa and the area.”
It is time “to remove the greatest bomb in the Middle East from Haifa Bay” he added.
The Haifa Group a fertilizer producer that operates the tank said in a statement following the ruling that “the company will respect the court’s decision.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how much ammonia the 12000-ton-capacity tank currently contains.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav hailed the decision calling it “an additional accomplishment in the year-long struggle which we will not stop until the storage tank is removed from Haifa Bay.”
The Haifa municipality submitted its petition for the closure of the ammonium storage facility following the publication two weeks ago of a report it commissioned that found the port city’s ammonia operations pose a serious risk to the population.
The report was also submitted to the High Court of Justice as part of a legal dispute between Haifa Group and the municipality.
If ruptured the vast ammonia storage tank would suffocate 16000 victims under a toxic cloud the report said.
But an even worse danger the report said is posed by a delivery ship carrying over 16000 tons of ammonia that arrives at the Haifa container once a month. If its cargo were released to the air it could kill as many as 600000 in the bay area according to the report.
