Truck driver arrested for dumping fuel waste in Rishon sewers

Central District police arrested a truck driver in his 50s Wednesday evening on suspicion of dumping hazardous materials into Rishon Lezion's municipal sewer system, I24NEWS correspondent Leigh Ish reported.

The arrest came after a three-day manhunt and investigation following an unusual and severe environmental odor incident that swept across the city and severely disrupted residents' daily routines.

The suspect is being questioned at the police station, and enforcement authorities are examining the circumstances of the incident and the suspicion that this was an illegal, pirate dumping of hazardous industrial waste intended to save on regulated disposal costs.

The severe nuisance began troubling Rishon Lezion residents on Sunday, when numerous reports flooded municipal and police emergency hotlines about a strong chemical smell in wide areas of the city. Residents in western Rishon Lezion reported a sharp odor reminiscent of gas, and parents described children vomiting. Two women, in their 30s and 80s, arrived at Shamir Medical Center suffering from shortness of breath apparently due to the odor, and were treated in the emergency medicine department.

In response to the wave of complaints and concern over a widespread hazardous materials incident, special monitoring teams from Fire and Rescue, representatives of the Environmental Protection Ministry, and Home Front Command forces were rushed to the scene. The professional authorities began extensive scans and took samples from various sewer manholes across the city to locate the exact source of the contamination and examine whether there was an immediate danger to public health. Monitoring tests found no unusual gas concentrations or signs of hazardous materials in the air.

Monitoring pollution in the city (Photo: Fire and Rescue Services)

After a series of laboratory tests and infrastructure surveys, Rishon Lezion Mayor Raz Kinstlich announced Tuesday that the source of the sharp odor had been identified as a severe sanitary hazard caused by the injection or dumping of fuel and oil waste into the city's sewer pipes. The discovery came following a special scanning operation conducted across the city, in which professional teams from Home Front Command, the Environmental Protection Ministry, Rishon Lezion Municipality, and the municipal water corporation participated. During tours in the western part of the city, a severe sanitary hazard was uncovered: pirate and illegal dumping of fuel and oil waste into a municipal sewer manhole.

"Home Front Command and the Environmental Protection Ministry took samples from here, and they are convinced this is the source of the severe odor nuisance we have all experienced in recent days," Kinstlich clarified. With the source located, municipal teams together with the Environmental Protection Ministry began conducting special washing operations and focused pumping of the pollutants from the system, aimed at neutralizing the effects of the materials and eliminating the severe odor.

Parallel to the cleanup efforts in the field, the joint police investigation quickly led to the formation of suspicion against the truck driver and his arrest. The municipality noted that a comprehensive investigation has been opened in an attempt to track down those who dumped the hazardous waste and bring them to full justice.

The incident joins a series of similar cases in which parties illegally dump construction and industrial waste. In a wide-scale enforcement operation conducted in October in the Central region, 14 suspects were arrested on suspicion of illegal dumping and burial of construction waste and soil at pirate sites within the boundaries of Rishon Lezion and Holon, and 18 trucks and two loaders worth tens of millions of shekels were seized.