Ministry considers criminal probe over Negev acid waste spill

The Environmental Protection Ministry is considering opening a criminal investigation against a fertilizer factory after a massive spill poured tens of thousands of tons of acid waste through a nature reserve in the south of the country.

Baruch Weber, the ministry’s southern region director, said officials were to hold consultations during the day on issuing a closure order for the remaining pools at Rotem Fertilizer, where the wall of an evaporation pool collapsed and dumped 100,000 cubic meters of acid into Nahal Ashalim, a wadi in the southern Judean Desert, Army Radio reported.

The leak was discovered by factory workers on Friday morning. The acid flowed toward Route 90 and the Dead Sea, and police closed the road for part of Friday evening.

“We notified the factory that we will summon it for a hearing, during which we will consider the possibility of moving toward a criminal investigation,” Weber said.

Israel Chemicals, which owns Rotem Fertilizer, said in a statement that it operates with full cooperation and coordination with authorities and and pledged to dedicate all its resources to fully rehabilitating the riverbed.

Inspectors from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority worked Saturday to determine the scope of the ecological damage.

Environmental experts collected soil samples and began mapping out the area affected by the leakage, estimated to have reached a height of four meters high as it poured through the wadi.

Assaf Tsoar, an ecologist at the southern district branch of the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, warned that visitors will only be able to return to the popular hiking route in a few weeks time.

“I implore hikers to stay away from the area — the contamination is dangerous to wildlife and people,” Tsoar told Army Radio. “It will take many years until this riverbed is fully rehabilitated.”