[35][36][37][38] Ten years after its establishment, outcrops of the chalk under Ramat Hovav showed fractures potentially leading to serious soil and groundwater contamination in the future.

[42] In 1999, al-Quds al-Arabi reported that Israeli companies were engaging in illegal dumping of toxic waste in the West Bank to avoid the cost of treatment and transport to Ramat Hovav.

[44][45] In 2007, the head of the Ramat Hovav council, Giora Meyuhas, accused the government corporation that manages the site, the Environmental Services Company, of breaking the law and polluting the environment.

Before the branch line was completed in 2004, hazardous materials bound for Ramat Hovav were transloaded onto trucks at the Be'er Sheva North Railway Station, a fact that delayed the approval of new real estate development in the vicinity of Be'er Sheva North due to the risk of hazardous materials spills occurring during the transloading process.

In December 2014, the largest photovoltaic power plant of Israel's solar sector was inaugurated in Ramat Hovav, over the previously hazardous dumping site.