It reeks: Israelis complain of foul stench from manure pile
Environmental Protection Ministry says noxious odor carried by strong winds to an area from Kfar Saba to the north to Ness Ziona to the south was the result of fertilization on farmland in the Hof HaSharon Regional Council.
The ministry said it would investigate the incident and then take the appropriate enforcement measures.
Many Israelis in the Sharon plains, the Ono Valley and the Greater Tel Aviv area—between Kfar Saba to the north and Ness Ziona to the south—complained on Tuesday evening of acrid odor in the air.
The Environmental Protection Ministry said hundreds of complaints were received of the odious smell at municipal call centers.
"The stench is so potent it's hard to breathe," said a Herzliya resident.
"You could feel the stink with every breath," another Herzliya resident said.
Benny from Ramat HaSharon elaborated, saying "I got home around 7:30pm and I could already hear all of the neighbors coughing. It's a terrible smell of sewer and feces. There is no way to describe it."
Amin Brensi, a senior official in the Environmental Protection Ministry's Agricultural Environment Department, said the stench came from farmland near moshav Bnei Zion and was carried by strong winds.
"It's fertilization season," Brensi said, "There are a lot of flies out here and it's hard to be outside because of all of the flies."
Yaniv Green, the head of the central district in the ministry's green police, told Ynet that the putrid smell will remain in the air for about three more weeks.
"We're talking about manure from a chicken coop that came from Ein HaHoresh to fertilize the land being prepared for planting," Green explained, saying the manure is now in the process of being covered to mitigate the stench.
He stressed, meanwhile, that at present, the stench posed no health risk. "At the moment, this is mostly just smell. We took a sample from the manure and we're going to check it for pathogens in the lab."
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Raanan Ben-Zur, Nadav PaPo, Itay Blumenthal and Alexandra Lukash contributed to this report.
