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The Kishon River (, ; , – the intermittent river; alternative Arabic, الكيشون ) is a river in Israel that flows into the Mediterranean Sea near the city of Haifa.
It was claimed in 2000, that there are more chemicals than water in the river, and that washing one's hands in this river can cause severe chemical burns. On several occasions this river (or rather, patches of petrochemical waste on it) has caught fire from the chemical contaminants. Below Histadrut Bridge (Highway 4), after passing the petrochemical industries zone, the pH was 3 or below for most of the time in 2001.
A 2002 study found the ability of 3 hours' exposure to Kishon River water to induce DNA damage in rainbow trout liver-cells to be on average threefold that of unpolluted water. Notably the lower Kishon, below the petrochemical industry zone, had a markedly elevated genotoxic potential.
A 2000 analysis of the river water revealed chlorine compounds in discharges from the refineries,fluorine compounds precipitate into the river sediment: Avishai et al. 2002 the municipal sewage treatment plant and from the Haifa Chemicals fertilizer production plant. Heavy metals were present in the discharges from the Carmel Olefins and Haifa Chemicals plants. The upper river system may also be mixed with genotoxic materials from domestic waste and agricultural runoff that contain pesticides and fertilizers. Potent genotoxins usually found in domestic wastes also include N-nitroso compounds and , which are known to be present in human sanitary outflows as well as genotoxic PAHs found in municipal discharges.
(2002): Genotoxicity of the Kishon River, Israel: the application of an in vitro cellular assay. Mutation Research 518(1): 21–37. (HTML abstract)
As of January 4, 2016; 1,000,000 cubic meters per year of potable water is added to the Kishon River and had decreased concentrations of salts, nitrates and phosphates, by over 50%. This flow will be replaced by the Jezreel Valley springs, as their flow is removed from irrigation.
Cleanup
In 2012, the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection launched a tender to clean up the Kishon river in a project costing NIS 220 million. Much of the funding for the project came from the companies responsible for the pollution. The Canadian company EnGlobe Corp. began work in 2012 to clean up the river. The cleanup project is to be concluded in 2015.
Shayetet 13
Since 2001, it was discovered that Shayetet 13 veterans had high occurrence of cancer, probably due to training in the polluted Kishon River and Haifa Bay. A commission for investigating the matter did not find statistical evidence that diving in the Kishon caused the cancers. However, despite the commission findings, the Defense Ministry decided to compensate select litigants. A new probe initiated in December 2021 concluded in February 2022 that the veterans had been exposed to a high amount of toxic chemicals, and it was subsequently decided to provide compensation to anyone who had trained in the Kishon River and fallen ill. Defense Ministry to recognize soldiers who swam in toxic river as disabled veterans
See also
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