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-- Ariel's treatment plant was defective for a decade, then shut down in 2008; thereafter wastewater flowed into the Shilo stream, a major Yarkon River tributary;
-- Elqana's treatment plant stopped operating; its wastewater flows into the Rava stream, another Yarkon tributary; renovation funding was allocated to make it operable by the end of 2009;
-- Qedumim's two treatment plants ceased functioning in 2007; its wastewater flows into the Abu Jamus stream; in March 2008, one plant resumed operations;
-- Beit Ariyeh's plant stopped functioning in 2008; its effluent flowed into the Shilo stream until renovations let it resume operations in January 2009;
-- Qedar, Ma'aleh Amos, Nokdim, Otni'el, Etz Ephraim, and Enav settlements dispose of their wastewater in septic tanks, "from which it seeps into the groundwater and pollutes it;" and
-- 25 Jordan Valley settlements' wastewater is only partially treated in sedimentation basins and oxidation ponds, an outdated method not used inside Israel.
Overall, Israeli and independent studies show that settlements' waterwater treatment inadequacies are long-standing and serious - confirmed by the Ministry of Environmental Protection saying that many settlements "do not have a proper solution to wastewater." According to Yael Mason, the Industrial Wastewater and Polluted Lands Department director, some settlement plants "do not meet requisite standards and pollute both the Mountain Aquifer and streams."
Conditions were as bad in 1998 when a Municipal Environmental Association of Judea survey found half the plants (where over 40,000 settlers lived), polluted the environment "to a great or moderate extent," and only 13 plants (for 16,000 people) performed "to a reasonable extent."
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