Underground disposal of hazardous waste in Israel – Design principles and conceptual approach

The careless or unprofessional handling of hazardous wastes in many places around the world led to severe damage of nature, concurrent with considerable long-term health risks to human beings. This motivated several countries to develop new secure and sustainable waste management strategies in order to enhance the future quality of nature and life. The process of world globalization and the coalescence of its markets increased the importance of formulation and implementation of accepted environmental standards. The rising environmental and ecological awareness in Israel puts the contemporary and common waste handling practices under close scrutiny. An intensive exchange of experiences with other countries is called for, so that the responsible authorities can formulate improved and sustainable waste management strategies, which are specifically tailored to the particular environmental, demographic, economic and political conditions of Israel.The German environmental protection and waste legislation demands an underground disposal of highly contaminated wastes, in order to guarantee that harmful substances are excluded durably from the biosphere. In view of its size and the political situation in Israel, this way of waste disposal seems to be an appropriate waste management strategy aimed at minimising the environmental risks, and the harmful effect of hostile actions against deposits of hazardous wastes. The German waste management policies and practices, which are based on many years of experience, are reviewed first as a guideline for safe long-term underground disposal of hazardous wastes in Israel. Using these guidelines, potentially suitable locations in Israel are selected with special reference to their geohydrological, geological and geomechanical conditions, and then they were evaluated using environmental criteria derived from German standards of waste disposal. The results of this preliminary environmental evaluation, and some relevant geomechanical designs, are presented and discussed. Finally, economic aspects, and further steps, which are needed to safeguard future implementation of the underground disposal system, are considered.