2014 Israeli oil spill

2014 Israeli oil spill
Location	18 km north of Eilat, Israel
Coordinates	29°40′29.28″N 35°0′25.56″E / 29.6748000°N 35.0071000°E / 29.6748000; 35.0071000Coordinates: 29°40′29.28″N 35°0′25.56″E / 29.6748000°N 35.0071000°E / 29.6748000; 35.0071000
Date	4 December 2014
Cause
Cause	failed maintenance work on the Trans-Israel pipeline
Operator	Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company
Spill characteristics
Volume	3,000,000–5,000,000 litres (660,000–1,100,000 imp gal; 790,000–1,320,000 US gal)

014 Israeli oil spill in Evrona nature reserve

In December 2014, a major oil spill occurred in the vicinity of Eilat, Israel, with an estimated 3-5 million liters^[1] of crude oil leaking from a breached pipeline, contaminating much of the Evrona nature reserve. An Environment Ministry official stated that the cleanup would likely take years, and that the spill was one of the gravest natural disasters in the country's history.^[2][3]

In light of this, On December 9, 2014, Ofir Akunis was appointed deputy environmental protection minister. Akunis is replacing Amir Peretz, who resigned from his post at the helm of the ministry.^[4] The appointment, by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office, comes a week after the massive crude oil spill in Israel's Arava region. Akunis said that "it is the deputy minister's intention to prioritize treatment of the ecological disaster in the south and to do all that is necessary to prevent the spread of the crude oil, and to prevent a health and environmental disaster."^[5] Akunis has ordered crews to raise the side walls of the dams that have been built in the Arava to prevent flooding. Thanks to the infrastructure that has already been built in the area, the risk that the oil will reach the Gulf of Eilat has significantly dropped. Akunis has instructed that the reserve remain closed as long as high values of pollutants are still registered in air quality tests. In the end of December, The government approved a NIS 17 million Environment Ministry plan to rehabilitate. According to Akunis, the NIS 17 million program will serve to treat the soils contaminated by the spill as well as help restore the wildlife populations damaged over the course of the event. As part of the plan, a special team will be appointed to evaluate the environmental impact of various Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company activities on both dry land and beaches. The approved plan also involves opening a closed Eilat beach on EAPC-owned property to the city's residents and visitors.^[6] In January 2015, Air quality tests found that there has been a 90% reduction of pollution in Evrona.

References