Israel’s Worst Oil Spill Largely Contained, But Area Could Take Years to Recover

Ten days after the Trans-Israel pipeline burst, flooding the Evrona nature reserve with 5 million liters of crude oil, Israel’s acting Environmental Protection Minister Ofir Akunis told the Cabinet Dec. 14 that 90 percent of the oil had been removed and the danger of it spreading to the Red Sea had been averted.

Cleanup crews pumped out about 2 million liters of oil, removed some 20,000 tons of oil-saturated soil, dug pools and bulldozed earth dams into place to prevent the oil from possibly flowing south during flash floods typical of the season. Absorption equipment also was deployed in the ...