The Nature and Parks Authority is Restoring the Evrona Nature Reserve

In recent weeks, the Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) began marking work in the area of the Evrona Nature Reserve in preparation for the start of restoration work, which is expected to begin in mid-April. As a reminder, in 2014, the Evrona Nature Reserve was damaged by pollution when a malfunction in an EAPC (Katzah) pipeline caused approximately 5,000 cubic meters of crude oil to flow into the reserve in the Arava, contaminating an area of about 140 dunams across stream channels totaling approximately 6 km in length.

Following the pollution event, considered one of the most severe environmental disasters in the country's history, several actions were taken to attempt to restore and repair the damage caused to the reserve. The most recent restoration effort, carried out using oil-decomposing bacteria, did not achieve satisfactory results—even though it had succeeded in a preliminary pilot. Consequently, the Nature and Parks Authority decided to remove the oil pollution from the reserve by stripping the contaminated topsoil layer, which reaches a depth of 20-40 cm.

Dr. Nitzan Segev, an Arava ecologist at the Nature and Parks Authority who is overseeing the restoration project, explains: "Immediately after the leak was discovered in 2014, emergency operations were carried out to remove the crude oil using various absorption methods, and local dams were created to trap the oil, which was then pumped out and removed from the reserve. Contaminated soil evacuated from outside the reserve's boundaries near the Arava Road was transferred for treatment at the Nimra waste site. Additionally, contaminated acacia tree pods were collected from the ground to prevent them from being eaten by gazelles."

"Simultaneously, a monitoring program was launched to examine the impact of the oil on the soil, flora, and fauna. It turned out that near the site of the recent leak, a previous leak had occurred in 1975 that was unknown, for which no restoration processes had been performed, and the upper soil layer remained saturated with oil. Research results showed that even after more than 40 years, the soil cannot restore itself without intervention. Therefore, it was decided to treat the soil using an experimental treatment—a physical-biological process aimed at lowering the concentration of oil components in the soil using oil-decomposing bacteria."

"Monitoring results after the completion of the treatment in the contaminated area showed that the decomposition of oil in the soil was lower than desired, reflecting the complexity of treating a large and heterogeneous area with high variability in oil concentrations. At the conclusion of the work, the average oil concentration in the soil had decreased by less than 50%. Due to dissatisfaction with these results, it was decided to proceed with a massive restoration process: the removal of the topsoil from the reserve."

The Nature and Parks Authority explains that the work will last approximately six weeks, during which heavy machinery will enter the reserve to remove the contaminated soil, which will then be transferred to the Nimra landfill site. The soil will undergo treatment for oil residues in accordance with Ministry of Environmental Protection guidelines and will subsequently be buried in a designated landfill.

The Evrona Salt Marsh Nature Reserve:

The Evrona Salt Marsh Nature Reserve is a unique habitat on the edge of a salt marsh, where plants and animals have learned to survive in saline conditions and the extreme climatic conditions of an ultra-arid desert. In this region, there are drought years with less than 25 mm of rain, and even years with no rain at all. Despite these harsh conditions, a rich ecosystem has developed in the Evrona Salt Marsh, featuring hundreds of acacia trees and plants, and a variety of animals that feed on them, such as a large population of about two hundred Dorcas gazelles, which derive their necessary moisture from foliage and do not need to drink water regularly.

The reserve is home to rare plants and animals at various risk levels that can only be found in the southern Arava—such as the Saharan sand viper, the elegant racer snake, the Timna fan-fingered gecko, and more. It serves as a nesting ground for rare ground-nesting birds like the Greater Hoopoe-lark. During monitoring, a spider species new to science was even discovered there; it lives in burrows in the soil, meaning its distribution was significantly affected by the oil spill.

In the near future, the Academy of the Hebrew Language will determine if its official Hebrew name will be "Saharinit Arava" (Sahastata aravaensis Ganem et al., 2022). The reserve also features the Bean Caper (Zygophyllum dumosum), a plant adapted to sand and salt, as well as the northernmost natural group of Doum palms in the world.