ISRAEL: PIPELINE COMPANY ADMITS 5 MILLION TONS OF OIL SPILLED IN SOUTH
December 8, 2014
The Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company admitted Sunday that the amount of oil that spilled from the pipeline last week was 5 million tons, much more than the 1-1.5 millions tons claimed earlier.
Israel's Environment Protective Ministry said in response they were skeptic of the Eilat-Ahskelon Pipeline Company's earlier claims.
Meanwhile, rains forecast for Tuesday are a growing cause for concern following the oil spill, environmental experts say.
"If the rain causes floods, that will take the oil east and south, and deep into the soil. It will spread out and it will be more difficult to deal with,” Elli Groner, the academic director of the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, was quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying.
Clean-up crews have already managed to move 8,500 tons of contaminated soil into the Nimra landfill since the leak last Wednesday, described as one of the worst pollution events in the history of Israel.