Evrona reserve: a year and a half after the oil spill

Students and researchers at the Technion presented eight studies related to the damage caused by the oil spill in the reserve to the representatives of KTSA and the Nature and Parks Authority

"This symposium that you initiated at the Technion is an excellent example of work in nature conservation: you work under certain conditions, and they change; Suddenly a malfunction occurs, suddenly another constraint enters. It can be said that as ecologists working in a nature reserve, we are sometimes required to carry out aggressive interface operations, and at the same time maintain a functioning ecosystem that is unique to the area in which we operate."

Dr. Assaf Tzoer, South District Ecologist at the Nature and Parks Authority (RTG), opened the seminar held at the Grand Water Research Institute at the Technion with these words. The symposium was dedicated to the presentation of undergraduate students' research projects on the oil spill in the Evrona Reserve and the presentation of ways to restore the area. According to Dr. Tzoer "there is a very sensitive situation here: we want to get the oil out of the reserve - but not to wash it into the Gulf of Eilat. We are considering irrigating the soil to allow the bacteria to treat the contamination, but we know that it is very difficult to irrigate the contaminated soil and that irrigation in extreme desert conditions (as in the past) could upset the ecological balance. We want a clean reserve, but without harming the values ​​of nature."

The spill event that agitated the country took place in the south of the Arava on December 4, 2014. As a result of damage to an oil pipeline belonging to Katsa (Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company Ltd.), approximately 5 million liters of crude oil flowed along Highway 90 and from there to the Evrona Reserve, covering approximately -140 dunams of the reserve area.

During the examination of the serious incident it became clear that in 1975 a similar incident occurred that was not treated at all. "Therefore," said Dr. Tzoer, "the thought arose that if the reserve recovered by itself from that event, it will also recover from the new event. But when we started inspecting the area, with the help of researchers from several academic institutions, we discovered that the 1975 spill actually affected the reserve: the ground became hydrophobic, that is, impermeable to water, and as a result young acacia trees did not grow in the area. The fear is that in the future we will lose the acacia trees and other plant species that grow only in the Evrona Reserve. That's why it was clear to us that the current leak must be dealt with."

The news about the oil spill caught Uriel Keller on the morning of a normal school day at the Technion. Keller, an undergraduate student in the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is the founder of the Maal'a group (Future Engineers for the Environment), a voluntary organization of undergraduate students at the Technion. "I was sitting in the last row of the class next to a student named Omar Levy," says Keller, "and we were looking at the pictures in the newspaper - those difficult pictures from the oil spill event. Omar was shocked by the case and insisted that we must do something to help restore the reserve. Omar spoke, I listened, but in the process I already started thinking about who would be the right faculty member to approach. I suddenly remembered that I am in an introductory course on flow and soil pollution. The lecturer of that course was Prof. Uri Shavit, and at that moment it was already clear to me that at the end of the class Omer and I would approach him. Uri, to our great joy, agreed to meet with us, and from that moment he took us under his wing."

A few days later, with the assistance of the Nature and Parks Authority, the first expedition was sent out to sample soil in the reserve. Prof. Shavit was joined by Prof. Sima Yaron from the Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering and later they were joined by Prof. Avi Shabiv, Prof. Avi Ostfeld, Prof. Maxim Shoshani and Eng. Erez Tzamchouni, all from the Technion. The student group also grew, and for a year and a half its members traveled many times to the spill site to learn about the damage and formulate ways to biologically treat the contaminated soil. "None of us is an expert in oil pollution," says Prof. Shavit, "but all of us, especially the students, are driven by the desire to understand the relevant mechanisms and formulate models for monitoring, predicting and treating pollution. To my delight, we received real support from the Office of the Senior Vice President of the Technion, Prof. Moshe Sidi, from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technion, from the Grand Water Research Institute, the Salt of the Earth Company, and the Nature and Parks Authority."

At the seminar, works were presented in a wide variety of fields and aspects: the mapping of pollution through remote sensing, the effect of oil on the ground, the decomposition of oil using bacteria, the effect of flood events, and more. Dr. Tzoer concluded by saying that "The Nature and Parks Authority is very impressed by the projects that the technical research groups have been conducting for a year and a half in the field and in the laboratories, and I believe that these projects will give us significant directions for monitoring pollution and treating it. It is very impressive that these guys, undergraduate students, invest so much knowledge, time and energy to promote the Evrona environment from a scientific point of view and from an urge to improve the environment."