'Green' apartment buyers in Kfar Saba gear up to fight factory

Environmental tests show factory was allowing excessive quantities of sulfides and oils into wastewater system.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY
factory industry 88 (photo credit: )
factory industry 88
(photo credit: )
Buyers of apartments in Kfar Saba's new "green" neighborhood are furious that the city has approved the expansion of a nearby can factory and are gearing up to fight the decision, reports www.nrg.co.il. A group of buyers has formed an action committee and distributed hundreds of brochures to other buyers urging them to protest the decision at the next council meeting. The buyers are being backed up by several opposition councilors angry that the expansion has been approved even though the factory has been accused of environmental pollution. According to the report, the city's Local Planning and Construction Committee recently approved plans for the expansion of the Caniel factory in the north-west corner of Kfar Saba, which produces cans for beer and soft drinks. The factory, which currently occupies 50,000 square meters of land directly opposite the new green neighborhood, sought the 1,500-square-meter expansion to enable it to move its Petah Tikva branch to Kfar Saba and operate from one site. But the report said it was "absurd" that the city had approved the expansion when just six months ago it initiated legal proceedings against the factory for operating without a business license and for failing to meet anti-pollution standards. Environmental tests showed that the factory was allowing excessive quantities of sulfides and oils to wash into the wastewater system. "We must not remain quiet and wait while a chemical bubble grows opposite our homes," a buyers' committee representative said. And opposition councilors Yuval Levy and Guy Ben-Gal were also planning to raise the issues at the council meeting. A municipal spokesman responded that council meetings were open to the general public, but it was "regretful" that the buyers were being fed "inexact" information by politically motivated sources.