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Assessment of Environmental Impacts and Horizons of Rehabilitation for
Abandoned Limestone Quarries in the Eastern and Northeastern Parts of
Hebron District.

Environmental Workshop of the Land Research Center

Land Research Center (LRC) in cooperation with America Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) organized a workshop on 4/6/2002 at the hall of Halhul Municipality entitled:Assessment of Environmental Impacts and Horizons of Rehabilitation for Abandoned Limestone Quarries in the Eastern and Northeastern Parts of Hebron District.
The workshop was attended by representatives of municipalities of the district and the ministries of environment, local governorate, industry, agriculture and housing in addition to other national NGOs and international firms. The recommendations of the study dine by LRC and have the same title of the workshop are divided into long term strategic and short term practical recommendations. These recommendations can be summarized as follows:

VI.A. General Long Term Recommendations. Considering the environmental, land use and demographic situation for the whole area, the following recommendations would be stated:

1. The establishing of quarries should be prohibited to the west of the marked line on the attached map in any case. This are should be devoted either to urbanization purposes or as an agricultural land if applicable. It is the only available area for these purposes between this line and the bypass road.
   
   
   
   Map showing the marked line to the east of which no quarries should be established.
   
2. Sannoud quarries cluster should be closed immediately because it is located inside an urbanized area. There should be a governmental legislation prohibiting establishing quarries within the borders of cities, towns and villages.
   
   
3. It is preferable to confine Irbia’ cluster to its current borders, because stones in the adjacent area is not promising and its expansion to the west affected agricultural land.
   
   
4. It is of vital importance to establish a nature reserve or park to the east of the marked line. The most biologically sound way to preserve genetic resources is to keep them in the environment in which they develop. The most probable site would be the northeastern part of the studied area (east of Sa’ir). This would be considered as in situ conservation that may lead to recovery or maintenance of viable population of species at the original location.
   
   
5. An environmental law was issued by Palestinian National Authority, but there is a lack of preventive legislation codes for air pollution. This is a serious practical problem facing any environmental restriction that necessitates establishing monitoring stations to obtain precise indications on air pollution in prospected polluted areas.
   
   
6. Providing the infrastructure utilities like electricity, water networks and paving the main roads leading to the quarries would reduce significantly the negative environmental impacts. Also, this would lead to the transformation of cutting stone plants from the urbanized areas at Hebron, Beit Fajjar and other town closer to the quarry clusters. This transfer will have a positive economic impact by the reduction of building stones production cost.
   
   
7. Utilization of waste slag’s discarded after cutting building stones is extremely important to avoid pollution hazards and to improve the feasibility on new projects.
   
   
8. "Abandoned Quarry Reclamation," should be a clear and direct significant portion of the environmental law endorsed by PNA. It should incorporate the philosophy of the polluter paying for remediation of past abuses even though society as a whole behaved in a pattern that condoned the earlier practices. Priority three is for the restoration of land resources and the environment.

Practical Short Term Recommendations.

To have deep understanding of the practical short term recommendations which means the rehabilitation of the abandoned quarries, justification and the basis for each recommendation will be displayed.

1. Land Reclamation for Agricultural Purposes.
   This choice for the restoration of some of the abandoned quarries should aim at producing a continuous supply of food for the residents in the area. This can be done by restoration with tree species that can withstand the existing growing conditions. It is possible to diversify the planted species considering the valuable uses for honey production, edible fruits, eco landscaping, habitat for animal life, medicinal and traditional values, and conservation purposes.
   
   It is impractical to apply this choice an any of the quarries cluster except Irbia’. There are 7 abandoned quarries at this cluster and just 3 are currently working. The area surrounding this cluster is not promising for establishing new quarries; therefore, it is strongly recommended to do mechanical land reclamation for at the abandoned quarries of this cluster.
   In light of the huge implied expenses and destruction of agricultural lands if it was opted to bring in sufficient topsoil to cover and replant the quarries, it is possible to work on a prolonged rehabilitation plan without altering the prevailing edaphic conditions. Reforestation with tree species that can withstand the existing harsh growing conditions would transform the landscape.
   
   
2. 2. Other Restoration Plans.
   The following restoration plans are applicable to marked quarries area outside clusters as shown in the attached map.
   There are 20 quarries in the delineated area, 17 of them are abandoned, representing the prospected quarries for rehabilitation. Their restoration will have both environmental and economic impacts because they are very close to urbanized and agricultural area. It is worth noticing that it should be prohibited to establish new quarries in this area. The average area of the abandoned quarries is about 2.5 dunums. After consultation with some of the owners of these quarries, it is found that land reclamation is their preferable choice. However, if the public interest is to be taken in consideration and be the driving philosophy behind the process of rehabilitation, the following are the suggested options to rehabilitate these quarries. In this case the implementation process would include the quarries site purchase by the Municipality or other NGOs, charitable or cooperative bodies.
   
   

Prospected quarries to be rehabilitated

• Recreation and leisure facilities:
  The town of Bani Na’im which is the closest to the selected quarries for rehabilitation is lacking recreation facilities like garden with retail services, kindergarten or playing field. Therefore, transforming one or two of the abandoned quarries to sport and recreation facility administered by the Municipality or other NGOs would help in filling this clear gap. Stadium could be one of the possible choices if adjacent land to the selected quarry is made available for that purpose.
  
  
• Water Reservoir:
  The area where these quarries are located is facing a shortage in water supply. One of the quarries could be transformed into a water storage reservoir to serve as a spare when the water supply is very low especially summer.
  
  
• Composting facility:
  The urbanized area surrounding the selected marked area for quarries is lacking efficient solid waste disposal or utilization facilities. Composting could be a good choice for the utilization of part of the solid wastes for practical purposes.
  
  
• Health Center:
  The area in general is lacking the convenient health services like other towns in Hebron District. Health center ranging from emergency unit to a small hospital would be very useful choice for one of the abandoned quarries.
  
  
• Housing Units:
  The recently married couples in the studied area are facing real housing problem because of the lack of cooperative housing societies or the privately owned apartments for rent. Constructing housing units as part of many floor building could be a good possibility at one or two sites of the abandoned quarries.