The comptroller points a finger at the environmental protection ministry and Israel Railways for not acting on the municipality's request to move the train depot to a less populated area.
By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss has strongly criticized the storage of dangerous substances in the Haifa area, saying that in addition to the many factories and plants in the area, the unloading of dangerous chemicals from trains at the Haifa depot is a major hazard, reports the Hebrew weekly Yediot Haifa. The comptroller's report, issued last week, criticizes several government departments for not acting to reduce the risks to the population of Haifa.
According to the report, the comptroller points a finger at the environmental protection ministry and Israel Railways for not acting on the municipality's request to move the train depot to a less populated area. He also says that while the transport ministry and treasury approved plans in 2005 to pave Highway 772 ("Kvish Deshanim"), which would bypass populated areas, work has not yet begun. And although the infrastructure ministry approved plans in 2004 to bury dangerous gas containers, nothing has yet been done about this.
The comptroller said the missiles that fell on Haifa during the Second Lebanon War proved the risks involved in storing dangerous chemicals near populated areas, and the government must secure the sites or move them to more remote areas.