River revival

Haifa’s Kishon River, used for years as a convenient industrial sewer, is fast becoming a regional nature showcase.

By MAURICE PICOW
Kishon River (photo credit: MAURICE PICOW)
Kishon River
(photo credit: MAURICE PICOW)
Is the Kishon River, once described as Israel’s most polluted body of water, on the way to becoming a living river again? This question and many others were on the mind of Metro‘s reporter during a recent visit to the offices of the Kishon River Authority, located on the fishing harbor of the Kishon River.
Once described as the “sewage canal of Haifa Bay,” the Kishon has been undergoing an environmental revival that is turning what was once one of Israel’s most polluted rivers into an ecological showcase for nature lovers and visitors from all over.
This revival, being carried out by the Kishon River Authority under the directorship of Sharon Nissim, is trying to revive not only the ecological system of the river but its tarnished image as well.
“For many years, the Haifa Chemicals plant, one of many other industries, used the Kishon as a waste drain-off and contributed to its substantial amounts of water and sediment pollutants,” says Nissim.
Before Haifa Chemicals Ltd. and other industries in Haifa Bay were instructed to treat and improve the effluent quality according to the KRA and the Ministry of Environmental Protection requirements, the Kishon was almost a dead river.
Nissim, who has been the KRA general director since 2006, told Metro that although substantial progress has been made to clean up the river, there is a need for “additional substantive improvement” before it can become a “truly living river with good water quality and a self-sustainable healthy ecosystem.”
“The Kishon is still not clean, but we are in the process of improving it and still haven’t reached our desired goals,” says Nissim.
She says there are three actions that need to be taken to improve the river. The first is to stop polluting it through industrial dumping and run-off by industries such as Haifa Chemicals, Gadot Biochemical Industries Ltd. and Carmel Olefins Ltd. Haifa Chemicals is the worst offender, with pollution that included strong acids until 2001.
“It was convenient for these companies to dump wastes into the river so they would run out to sea,” says Nissim.
The second action is to remove and purify the polluted sediment from the riverbed. The third action is to supply clean water to the river. Fresh water to be added to the river’s base flow will come from non-active water well drilling and natural springs. The current base flow rate is not much above 400 cubic meters per hour. The implementation of the water supply plan will increase the flow up to 1,000 to 2,500 cm. per hour.
The Kishon River, which originates in the northern Samarian mountains, is fed by many tributaries. The river winds along a 70-km. course until it reaches Haifa Bay, just north of Haifa Port.
“For the first seven kilometers up to the seacoast, the water is actually seawater. Afterwards, as you go upstream, the water composition becomes more rich with fresh water,” says Nissim.
The river was still fairly clean in the mid- to late 1920s. It was a popular weekend spot for picnicking and water sports such as boating, fishing and swimming. This situation began to change dramatically when the British Mandate authorities constructed oil refineries in Haifa to provide fuel for British naval vessels and army forces stationed in Palestine. The environmental situation deteriorated further when Israel became a state and numerous industries were built, such as Haifa Chemicals, Deshanim Fertilizers and Chemicals, the Nesher cement works (which provided much of the concrete used in mass housing construction projects in the 1950s) and plastic products manufacturers like Carmel Olefins.
Other serious polluters included the Gadot Biochemicals citric acid manufacturers, and Haifa’s metropolitan waste water treatment plant. They all used the Kishon as an outlet for industrial waste and sewage that poured freely into the river from pipes and other outlets.
By the early 1990s the Kishon had become so polluted by petroleum hydrocarbons, acids and heavy metals that it became a dead river as far as wildlife habitation and public recreation were concerned. The industrial wastes pouring into the river were joined by large amounts of raw sewage from urban and agricultural communities that shared the banks of the Kishon and its tributaries.
The ecological situation of the river began to change for the better with the creation of the Kishon River Authority in 1994 as the result of a decision by the government under the auspices of the Streams and Springs Authorities Order. Now situated in the Fishermen’s Port, which faces the numerous fishing craft on which Haifa area fishermen still venture out into the Mediterranean to fish for their livelihood, the authority has succeeded in reducing a great deal of the industrial pollution.
These reductions include as much of 97% of the heavy metal quantity (e.g., cadmium, chrome and arsenic), 76% of the volume of wastewater and 90% of the petro-hydrocarbons (from the oil refineries).
“All the industries along the banks of the Kishon now have their own waste treatment facilities and are responsible for dealing with their waste products. To prevent accidental spilling into the river, each factory has its own monitoring equipment and is required to have at least three days’ storage ability for waste products to keep them from finding their way into the river,” says Gil Gutman, environmental engineer for the authority.
He adds that sewage from metropolitan Haifa is now being treated and is being used for agricultural irrigation instead of being diverted into the river.
On a tour of the authority’s offices, Gutman told Metro that the authority conducts 24-hour online monitoring of the Kishon’s water quality, which is done by several advanced measuring instruments placed in a container near the riverbank that feeds data to computers in the KRA’s offices. The instruments measure the types of pollutants in the river, as well as water body measurements like oxygen content, salinity and nutrient levels.
“Sunlight is important to the health of the river, as it kills harmful bacteria and other impurities. During the night, the oxygen level can drop considerably,” says Gutman.
Despite ongoing improvement, the water quality does not yet comply with the environmental standards, and nutrient-rich industrial effluents (brines) are still being discharged into the river. This results in algae and damage to the river’s ecosystem, says Gutman. He says there were times when oxygen levels in the water were virtually at zero levels, making it impossible for fish and other aquatic life to survive.
How can the aquatic creatures survive now under the fluctuating levels of oxygen? “The creatures in the water know how to adapt to these fluctuating oxygen levels. Species that are not adaptive cannot survive. That’s one of the causes of low biodiversity,” Gutman explains.
Nissim says that the Haifa oil refineries are the second main contributor to area pollution.
“To be healthy, the Kishon needs a water flow of 4 to 5 million cubic meters a year. A realistic timetable is needed to do the required improvement work on the Kishon so this river flow will be a reality,” she says.
The authority helps to improve the vegetation along the riverbanks that suffered extensively along with the area’s wildlife when the river was severely polluted. “We want to improve both the intensive part of the river – the part to be used for recreation – and the extensive, or natural, parts. We also want to restore the vegetation to what it once was, including indigenous water plants and land vegetation such as the pink-flowered oleander and the short-leafed clover that was once plentiful along the Kishon’s banks. In addition, the authority wants to bring the river closer to its historical meandering path – this is much better ecologically,” says Gutman.
Metro’s visit to the KRA included a river tour with Nissim and KRA ranger Alon Ben-Meir. They pointed out sections of the river that included a saltwater estuary where several species of water fowl such as cormorants, egrets and herons were seen feeding on small marine life in marshy areas along the river.
“Such scenes would not have been possible as recently as 10 or 12 years ago,” says Ben-Meir.
The tour also included an area where large numbers of ocean cargo containers are being stored by the Israel Ports Company.
“The container storage issue is still going on. A petition was signed by 400 university professors to remove most of the containers being stored near the river. As a result of the agreement between the KRA and the Ports Company, 600 dunams of this storage area will be made into a park, and the remaining 1,400 dunams will continue to be used for container storage. Efforts will be made to regulate the type of material stored in the containers (sometimes chemicals leak out),” says Nissim.
She adds that there are still many problems in dealing with the Israel Port Company; however; although the KRA signed an agreement to remove some of the containers, the Ports Company has still not signed it. This is in spite of the fact that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visited the Kishon in February and signed an agreement to remove some of the containers and create a park to help restore the river. But “due to present bureaucratic delays, all the containers are still there,” says Nissim.
The tour also included visiting an upstream section of the Kishon, where some areas have been made into a nature park. This includes a picturesque stretch of the Kishon that features small waterfalls, rapids, shaded picnic areas and a stone bridge that was built during Ottoman rule.
“We have included this part to show people a section of the Kishon that is not very well known but is very beautiful and worth visiting,” says Nissim. This part, located near the mountainside town of Kiryat Tivon, will also have bicycle paths and other facilities to attract people on outings to visit the area.
Nissim also pointed out an area that will be part of the new 2,500-dunam Kishon Metropolitan River Park and wetlands area, where two small lakes can be seen.
“These were areas where the Nesher Cement Company extracted clay to use in making cement,” says Nissim. The plan for this park includes taking sludge dredged from the Kishon riverbed, detoxifying it in biotreatment piles and making a mound that will be restored and have trees and grass planted on it. Part of this land is being cultivated by Kibbutz Yagur (9 km. southeast of Haifa). At present they are not interested in donating the land for use as a park.We are hopeful that they will reconsider once the project gets underway,” Nissim comments.
The most important restoration project being planned for the Kishon is the one to dredge the river to remove the polluted sediment and reduce impurities. This plan is estimated to cost NIS 220 million and will take at least three years to complete. Ultimately, it will remove some 440,000 cubic meters of toxic sediment.
“The main problem now involving the Kishon River’s restoration is the 2.5 to 3 meters of sediment in the riverbed that is polluted with petroleum and hydrocarbon residue. There are also heavy metals present, such as cadmium, chrome and arsenic. All these metals were probably found in the fish when the river was very polluted,” says Matty Shulimovitch, a chemical engineer at the authority.
A sediment survey was made in 2006 by the KRA, and sediment samples were made up to a depth of 11 meters to determine how deep the polluted sediment is. The KRA, together with the Environmental Protection Ministry, formed a committee to conduct the survey to determine how much pollution is in the sediment and how much must be removed.
The pollution of the riverbed, along with the former condition of the water itself, is what has given the Kishon River such a bad rap in the past; especially in regard to diseases such as cancer that a number of Israeli Navy commandos allegedly contracted later in life after being exposed to the Kishon’s water during combat practice exercises.
“The Army’s Shamgar Committee was formed in 2000 to decide what the connection was between the quality of the Kishon’s water and the incidence of cancer and other diseases among a number of navy commandos. The results of the committee’s findings were inconclusive, although the health problems of these former commandos continue to be reported in the media,” says Shulimovitch.
A joint project with a neighboring Israel Air Force base is under way to create environmental awareness among IDF military personnel about natural sites such as the Kishon. The base has adopted the river, and soldiers stationed there are being taught about environmental responsibility towards the Kishon and its environs. This awareness, however, has still not overridden the river’s murky past.

Information about the work being done by the Kishon River Authority to restore the river can be obtained from the KRA’s website: www.kishon.org.il. Guided group tours of the river are available if arranged in advance.