12 years after the oil spill: What is happening in the Avrona Nature Reserve now?

In December 2014, an EAPC oil pipeline collapsed along the Eilat-Ashkelon line, currently known as the Europe Asia Pipeline Company line, spilling approximately 5,000 cubic meters of crude oil into the heart of Avrona Nature Reserve in the southern Arava. The oil flooded stream channels over a stretch of about 7 kilometers and stained about 14.4 hectares in the reserve black. The environmental disaster, among the most severe in the country's history, led to a lengthy legal process at the end of which EAPC was ordered to pay compensation of more than NIS 100 million, including about NIS 20 million directed directly to the Nature and Parks Authority for the rehabilitation of the reserve.

Today, 12 years after the disaster, one of the most complex rehabilitation projects ever undertaken in Israel to address oil pollution in a nature reserve located in an arid desert is under way on site. "There has never been a rehabilitation project like this involving oil flowing in a nature reserve in an extreme arid desert," said Dr. Nitzan Segev, Arava ecologist, who is accompanying the project. "We hope that scraping the soil will allow the reserve to recover from the heavy damage caused to it."

The Avrona Nature Reserve is a unique and sensitive habitat on the margins of a salt flat, an area where the salt concentration in the soil is particularly high and only highly adaptable plants can survive. Due to these harsh conditions, the reserve is home to rare plant species.

In the heart of the reserve, a savanna of hundreds of acacia trees thrives, including the umbrella thorn acacia and the twisted acacia. The trees are key species in the local ecosystem, supporting a rich web of life around them, from insects to a herd of about 200 Dorcas gazelles and other rare animals.

Immediately following the oil spill, emergency measures were carried out that included pumping out oil accumulations and removing poisoned acacia fruits to prevent animals from being exposed to them. However, the oil, which penetrated to a depth of tens of centimeters into the clay soil, left long-term damage in its wake.

Studies and monitoring conducted in the reserve revealed that crude oil prevents germination and severely harms plant root development, even at very low concentrations. Evidence of this was also found in oil remnants from a previous spill that occurred in the area in 1975, which remain in the ground to this day.

Alongside its toxicity, the oil created a hard, sealed layer on the soil surface. In clean soil, rainwater seeps and absorbs quickly, but in the contaminated soil, water cannot penetrate inward. Instead, it flows rapidly across the black surface, leaving the area and preventing vegetation from regenerating.

In the first phase, an innovative physical-biological treatment attempt was made through a private company. The idea was to break down the carbon chains of the oil using oil-degrading bacteria, which were fed into the soil through an irrigation system.

In a pilot conducted over an area of 0.1 hectares, a success rate of over 70% in reducing pollution concentration was recorded. However, when the method was expanded to the large and heterogeneous area of the reserve, the results were completely different, and the reduction in the amount of oil stood at less than 50%.

At the Nature and Parks Authority, officials decided not to settle for this and moved to an active rehabilitation plan: Removing the contaminated soil from the heart of the reserve.

As part of the project, about 30,000 tons of contaminated soil, at a depth of 20 to 40 centimeters, will be evacuated to a site authorized by the Environmental Protection Ministry.

The work is being carried out with great care due to the sensitivity of the terrain, and particularly the acacia trees. Heavy engineering equipment and mini-excavators move between the trees, peel off the layer of clean material covering the pollution in the narrow channels, and set it aside. Afterward, they precisely scrape the oil-contaminated soil layer while trying to avoid damaging tree roots, and finally return the clean material to its place.

The work is accompanied by close hydro-geomorphological research designed to preserve the natural channel routes and moderate bank slopes.

So far, about 1 hectare out of the 14.4 hectares affected has been cleaned, and the work is expected to continue for several more months.

"The moment you extract the poison, you restore the situation to its previous state, as close as possible," said Shahar Yishcharov, Southern District infrastructure supervisor at the Nature and Parks Authority, who is managing the rehabilitation project. "We are regulating the terrain and topography so that the water can flow again."

Authority officials emphasize that no new soil will be brought in from outside the reserve. Instead, after removing the pollution, the plan is to allow natural processes to take their course.

The hope is that in the coming winter, flash floods will assist in continuing the rehabilitation work: Water will rediscover natural flow channels, stream across the area, seep into the soil, and water the extensive affected region. River sediment is expected to gradually replace the missing soil, based on the clean infrastructure prepared on site.

"We hope that nature will do its work," authority officials said, "and that the reserve will return to functioning as a thriving ecosystem."