Judge says that without activists’ petition, pollution at capital’s main bus depot would remain unchanged.
By Nir Hasson | Apr. 10, 2014

Jerusalem District Court Judge Abraham Tennenbaum yesterday handed down a harsh ruling that will force the administration at Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station and the Egged bus company to take a slew of measures meant to prevent public exposure to air pollution. In addition, the judge ruled the defendants must pay out 1.2 million shekels in damages, mostly to students and elderly individuals.

“My conclusion is that there is severe air pollution in the Central Bus Station, and all parties involved agree that a solution must be found,” wrote the judge.

The defendants claimed it was impossible to live up to standards set by the Clean Air Law, as the law was meant to regulate open spaces rather than closed structures. The judge rejected this argument, writing “without being an expert on the subject, we can see with our own eyes that man has managed to send ships into outer space, research the bottom of the ocean and build skyscrapers. The claim that no one in the universe is capable of handling the pollution problem at Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station sounds strange.”

The judge ordered a series of measures that Egged and the station management must take to end the continued pollution, including installing permanent monitoring devices at bus platforms to measure levels of nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide and other breathable particles. The devices must be installed within two weeks, and the information they record must be available to the public online, according to the judge’s orders.

Screens must also be installed at the bus platforms that will notify passengers of the pollution level in the area. Doors leading out to the platforms will be opened only when buses are ready for boarding. In addition, the judge ordered that the station must employ between three and six employees at all times to ensure that passengers do not go out to the platforms until buses are ready for boarding.

“To remove all doubt, no requests for extensions will be accepted,” wrote the judge.

In addition, the judge complimented the plaintiffs, all students and elderly individuals who frequently use public transportation and banded together with the “15 Minutes” organization to improve public transportation in Jerusalem. “I have no doubt that in light of these proceedings, had the plaintiffs not filed their case, the situation at the Central Bus Station would not have changed. The plaintiffs filed a long serious of complaints, sent letters and made many different efforts in order to change the status quo. These claims have been around since 2004,” wrote the judge.

The defendants were ordered to pay the plaintiffs’ legal fees as well.

Gil Yaakov, director of 15 Minutes, commented: “We call on Egged and the Central Bus Station to implement this ruling immediately, forgo additional legal proceedings and let passengers breathe easy.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.584881

JERUSALEM POST
Judge orders air pollution prevention measures at Jerusalem Central Bus Station
By SHARON UDASIN
04/10/2014

Defendants will be responsible for installing air pollution monitoring systems, and continuously tracking presence of a number of respirable particles.
Jerusalem
Jerusalem Central Bus Station Photo: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM
Jerusalem District Court Judge Abraham Tennenbaum ordered the operators of the capital’s Central Bus Station, as well as the Egged bus company, on Wednesday to take immediate action toward vastly improving the air quality in the station.

“My conclusion is that there is definitely air pollution at the Central Station, which in the opinion of everyone – both the plaintiffs and the defendants – should be solved,” Tennenbaum wrote in his judgment.

Ruling predominantly in favor of the plaintiffs – a group of graduate students and activists – Tennenbaum ordered the defendants to implement a series of air pollution prevention measures. He rejected, however, the plaintiffs’ request to recognize the case as a class action lawsuit, stressing that the pollution was not caused intentionally by any party, and was instead the result of poor planning. This court order, Tennenbaum explained, occurs in parallel with other orders issued by the Environmental Protection Ministry regarding the station’s cleanup.

In addition to calling for air quality improvement measures, Tennenbaum determined that the defendants owe the plaintiffs and their attorneys a totally of NIS 1.3 million for their various expenses. Egged is responsible for 10 percent of this sum, while the other five defendants – Amot Investments Ltd., NITSBA Holdings, Stations Enterprises Ltd., Jerusalem Central Station Management and Jerusalem Central Bus Station – are collectively responsible for the remaining 90%, the judge concluded.

The bulk of the air pollution prevention measures will likewise fall upon the station’s operators – the group of five defendants – rather than on Egged, according to Tennenbaum’s judgment. This group of defendants will be responsible for installing air pollution monitoring systems in the boarding terminals, and continuously tracking the presence of nitrogen oxide, nitrogen dioxide and PM2.5 respirable particles, the judge determined. Sampling of the air where passengers alight from the buses, on the ground floor, will require air sampling every six months.

Tennenbaum also ordered these five defendants with ensuring that all of the bus terminals employ automatic locking doors, which only can be unlocked by the arrival of a bus to its designated pickup zone. In a Knesset State Control Committee meeting in November, Jerusalem Central Bus Station CEO Tzvi Katz said that the station had already begun to use such doors.

These defendants must also bring in inspectors from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, and provide them with protective respiratory equipment, Tennenbaum said. The inspectors will need to make sure that passengers wait behind closed doors, board buses efficiently and refrain from smoking, according to the judgment.

Tennenbaum determined that Egged will share in the responsibility for these inspectors, particularly with their supply of respiratory equipment and with explanations as to how to operate such equipment. In addition, Egged must draft daily accurate records with the names of all the inspectors and their details, the judge added.

In response to the ruling, a statement from Egged said that the primary responsibility within the judgment falls upon the property owners of the station.

“Egged, whose position at this site is a tenant, similarly to other public transportation operators in Jerusalem, will work under the limited guidance that the court ruled for it,” the statement said.

An NGO that advocates for better public transportation services, 15 Minutes, which was connected to the defendants, praised the ruling as a victory.

“Air pollution at the Central Station will cease,” a post on the 15 Minutes Facebook page said.

Yet Noam Ronen, the attorney for the station operators, responded that “contrary to what the plaintiffs claimed, the judge determined that this is not a case in which a factory was trying to create air pollution at the expense of the public.”

“The verdict adopts a plant that [the defendants] submitted on their own initiative with the Environmental Protection Ministry to solve the problem,” Ronen said.

In October 2013, the Environmental Protection Ministry, in consultation with the Health Ministry, officially declared the Jerusalem Central Bus Station boarding area an excessively polluted space and an endangerment to public health. Since then, as Tennenbaum explained in his verdict, the ministry ordered the station’s operators to take a variety of steps toward improving the situation there.

Within his ruling, Tennenbaum stressed that making the air in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station more breathable is, in fact, a tangible goal.

“If you can go to the moon, you can also reduce pollution in the Jerusalem Central Bus Station,” he wrote.
http://www.jpost.com/Enviro-Tech/Judge-orders-air-pollution-prevention-measures-at-Jerusalem-Central-Bus-Station-348205