Land contamination threatens thousands of new homes

Land contamination is now not simply the issue of builders and residence patrons in Sde Dov in Tel Aviv. An replace issued by the Ministry of Environmental Safety, the Ministry of Well being, and the Authorities Water and Sewage Authority submitted to the Supreme Courtroom in current days reveals that dozens extra websites are suspected of getting contaminants within the soil, which might delay building and advertising for years to return.

These doubtlessly contaminated websites embrace Herzliya Airport, the Sirkin IDF base in Petah Tikva, and the Glilot space, lands on which hundreds of flats are deliberate for the approaching years.

The state’s response was submitted as a part of a petition filed by the Adam Teva V’Din environmental ssociation and Prof. Alon Tal, which calls for that the supervision of using PFAS compounds (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemical substances that could be current in these lands, and are thought of poisonous, be regulated. Nonetheless, the Israel Lands Authority (ILA), which has marketed and can market many of the land in query, notes that apart from Sde Dov, the exams haven’t but revealed any findings that flip the websites into contaminated however solely make them “suspicious” websites.

4,500 chemical substances

PFAS compounds are a bunch of about 4,500 artificial chemical substances which can be thought of warmth and fats resistant and troublesome to interrupt down chemically. That is why they’re discovered, for instance, within the coatings of pans and pots. In accordance with the Ministry of Environmental Safety, PFAS compounds have been found in groundwater monitoring wells, wells for ingesting water manufacturing, in streams, in industrial wastewater, in soil, in wastewater remedy plant effluents (wastewater remedy services), and extra.

In 2022, Adam Teva V’Din and Tal filed a petition requesting that the Ministry of Environmental Safety screens the presence of those substances in soils. In accordance with the state’s response, which was despatched in current days, the ministry is at present dealing with 35 suspicious websites. A few of them, such because the Israel Aerospace Industries website in Yehud, the Caesarstone website and Pi Glilot in Beersheva, have already been discovered to be clear.

Nonetheless, based on the state’s response and a letter lately written by Water Authority director basic Yechezkel Lifshitz, to ILA enterprise division director Sigal Gabay, among the many websites discovered to be contaminated are big complexes meant for residential use: the previous IDF base at Sirkin in Petah Tikva, Kiryat Haim air terminal, Sde Dov, the Glilot space and plenty of different websites that served or are serving as airfields (Ramat David, gasoline storage areas at Ben Gurion Airport, Rosh Pina Airport and Herzliya Airport), gasoline storage areas and energy vegetation (Ashdod and Hadera).

A couple of month in the past, Lifshitz wrote, “The Water Authority is working constantly to detect and map PFAS contamination at websites with potential danger, together with the Sde Dov space in Tel Aviv, the place the authority carried out groundwater analyses as early as 2022. Lately, the authority has additionally detected these compounds at different websites designated for growth, corresponding to Pi Glilot Ramat Hasharon, HA 27 and the Sirkin camp.”

Probably the most pressing places when it comes to the presence of contaminants are the Sirkin camp in Petah Tikva, the place 8,500 housing models are deliberate and Herzliya airport, the place 1,500 housing models are deliberate.

No requirements but

One of many issues with figuring out the extent of contamination with PFAS compounds is that there’s nonetheless no present normal. The Ministry of Environmental Safety is selling new requirements, however with the publication of a draft for public feedback, it has already brought on a stir, given what looks like a relative rest in contrast with worldwide requirements. In accordance with the state’s replace to the Excessive Courtroom, employees work is being carried out to finish the requirements.

Adam Teva V’Din warns that the state prefers to disregard the findings. For instance, the affiliation notes that though the land in Glilot is suspected of being contaminated, work is underway there underneath the Metro plan, risking employees, and with none plans to clear the land. The affiliation said that if the work continues, they are going to take into account petitioning to cease it.

In distinction, the ILA stresses all websites are solely “suspected of contamination,” however not those who have truly been confirmed to be contaminated. ILA inspector Yossi Mizrahi says, “Except for Sde Dov, there is no such thing as a website underneath investigation for full PFAS. All of the websites the place contaminants have been used up to now have been grouped collectively in an inventory, and they’re suspected of contamination. A few of them are big websites, and it’s sufficient for five% of them to be contaminated for them to be declared as such. We is not going to approve building earlier than the land is purified.”

Revealed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on July 9, 2026.

© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2026.