Waste system gets upgrade

The company will now be able to store more than three times as much waste and filter six times as much waste as previously.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
The giant Carmel Olefins petrochemical company in Haifa Bay has completed an upgrade of its waste treatment system that gives it a significantly greater capacity to store and purify its wastes before releasing the treated water into the Kishon River, reports www.local.co.il. The company, which manufactures polymers for the plastics industry, will now be able to store more than three times as much waste and filter six times as much waste as previously, enabling it to overcome long-standing problems in dealing with extra wastewater during the rainy season. According to the report, the company commissioned a group of specialists to examine its wastewater system two years ago, and in the wake of that survey decided to upgrade the system, concentrating especially on increasing capacity during the rainy season. A company spokesman said the company had battled for many years to treat the wastes during storms and heavy rains, with the system unable to cope with the amount of water flowing into it during rainstorms and often flooding. The spokesman said that while the company had been able to stop polluted water from flowing into the river, it had been a "struggle," and the upgrade would make it much easier to deal with the extra water when it rained. The company is legally permitted to send the treated wastewater into the river. The report said the company treats some 750,000 cubic meters of waste every year, and the upgrade has increased both its storage capacity and its filtration ability. The system can now store 20,000 cubic meters of waste, compared with 6,000 previously, and can filter 360,000 cubic meters of water per hour, instead of just 60,000 previously. "Despite our tiny contribution to the total quantity of industrial waste in general and to the quantity of polluting waste in particular, our aim to prevent breakdowns stands as one of our basic values in our environmental management system," the spokesman said.