Friday, December 5, 2014

PIPELINE RUPTURE DURING MAINTENANCE IN ISRAEL CAUSES MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE AND INJURES DOZENS OF PEOPLE ON DECEMBER 4, 2014





PIPELINE RUPTURE DURING MAINTENANCE IN ISRAEL CAUSES MAJOR ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE AND INJURES DOZENS OF PEOPLE ON DECEMBER 4, 2014




Southern oil spill one of Israel’s worst eco disasters
Over 80 people on both sides of Israel-Jordan border treated for respiratory problems after maintenance workers damage pipeline.  Our gut feeling tell us that this was a sabotage, but we will wait for the investigation results.
By Avi Lewis December 4, 2014, 11:36 am 2

Major oil spill north of Eilat leads to "extensive contamination" as a result of a damage to the Trans-Israel pipeline December 4, 2014. (photo credit: Courtesy Eilat Fire Department)
Over 80 people were treated for respiratory problems on both sides of the Israel-Jordan border on Thursday morning, amid warnings of an ecological disaster following a major oil spill overnight that flooded the highway leading into Eilat. The vast majority of those affected were in Jordan.
Traffic heading to the southern resort city was restarted Thursday morning after several hours of highway closure. The leak, near the village of Be’er Ora, was caused due to damage to the Trans-Israel pipeline, a major oil conduit between the Mediterranean and Red seas that runs from Eilat to Ashkelon.
In Jordan more than 80 people were hospitalized, including 30 workers at Aqaba’s King Hussein International Airport. The city’s residents were ordered to remain indoors, Jordanian media reported.
On the Israeli side, at least three people were treated by paramedics after they inhaled poisonous gases.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the spill was caused after the pipeline was struck accidentally during maintenance work.
Firefighters and environmental groups scrambled to the scene in an attempt to seal the puncture in the pipeline and prevent further contamination, which was described as “considerable” by Guy Samet, the director of the southern region in the Environmental Protection Ministry.
“This is one of the largest [environmental] events in the history of the country,” Samet told Channel 10.


Major oil spill north of Eilat leads to “extensive contamination” as a result of a damage to the Trans-Israel pipeline December 4, 2014. (photo credit: Courtesy Eilat Fire Department)
“We’re talking about thousands of gallons of crude oil, which will endanger local wildlife and the surrounding nature reserve,” he said, adding that rehabilitation could take “years.”
The spill was “a couple of kilometers long”, according to an Environmental Protection Ministry spokeswoman who was unable to give more specific information.
Be’er Ora sits in the sparsely populated Arava region, 20 kilometers north of Eilat, beside multiple nature reserves that are home to indigenous flora and fauna, including rare acacia trees and over 280 deer, said Doron Nissim, director of the Nature and Parks Authority’s Eilat chapter.
“From what we currently know, there is extensive pollution. Tomorrow we will perform an analysis of the damage and then we’ll have a clearer picture,” he told the news site Ynet on Wednesday night.
Route 90, Israel’s longest road and the main route of access into the resort town, was affected in both directions between Ketura and Eilat, roughly 50 kilometers (30 miles) apart.
Police rerouted traffic overnight to route 12, which skirts along the Egyptian border.



Published on
Thursday, December 04, 2014
by
'Worst' Ecological Disaster in Israel's History as Pipeline Spews Oil
Near the Jordanian border, massive oil spill near nature reserve has forced dozens of people to area hospitals
by



Oil spill at Evrona Nature Reserve in eastern Isreal near the border with Jordan. (Photo: Environmental Protection Ministry)
Black rivers of crude oil could be seen flowing across the desert sands in the eastern part of Israel Thursday morning and people on both sides of the border with neighboring Jordan were rushed to hospitals after inhaling toxic fumes from the massive spill that occurred after a major pipeline ruptured, possibly by a maintenace crew.
Some outlets are reporting this as potentially "the worst" environmental disaster in the nation's history as millions of gallons have gushed from the broken pipeline directly into one of the nation's prized nature reserves.
“Crude oil flowed throughout the reserve, causing serious damage ... to flora and fauna,” Guy Samet, a spokesperson for Israel's Environmental Protection Ministry, told local news outlets on Thursday. Samet estimated the amount of oil to be in the "millions of litres," though complete and accurate estimates have not been verified by independent sources.
“Rehabilitation will take months, if not years," Samet continued. "This is one of the State of Israel’s gravest pollution events. We are still having trouble gauging the full extent of the contamination.”



Haaretz reports:
Millions of liters of crude oil gushed out of a breached pipeline in southern Israel early Thursday, causing heavy damage to one of the area's important nature reserves.
Firefighters, police, Environmental Protection Ministry officials and oil pipeline maintenance teams were dispatched to the site of the spill, and managed to curtail the flow after about two hours.
The breach occurred during work on the pipeline that was part of preparations for the planned international airport under construction in Timna, in southern Israel. Once the leak was located, pipeline company officials shut the valves – but not in time to prevent the spillage of millions of liters of oil.
The pipeline, which links Eilat to the port city of Ashkelon, opened in the 1960s to facilitate the movement of Iranian oil from the Persian Gulf to European markets but since the rupture in Israeli-Iranian relations in 1979 has mostly been used to move oil and oil products from Eilat to different parts of Israel.
The Times of Israel adds:
The leak, near the village of Be’er Ora, was caused due to damage to the Trans-Israel pipeline, a major oil conduit between the Mediterranean and Red seas that runs from Eilat to Ashkelon.
In Jordan more than 80 people were hospitalized, including 30 workers at Aqaba’s King Hussein International Airport. The city’s residents were ordered to remain indoors, Jordanian media reported.
On the Israeli side, at least three people were treated by paramedics after they inhaled poisonous gases.
A preliminary investigation indicated that the spill was caused after the pipeline was struck accidentally during maintenance work.


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December 5, 2014
Chemical Spill Causes Evacuation In Yonkers

A chemical spill shut down 1 Odell Plaza in Yonkers Friday morning causing tenants have to evacuate the office building. Photo Credit: Dina Grace Zoe Sciortino
This story has been updated
YONKERS, N.Y. – The Yonkers Fire and Police Departments worked together to evacuate and mitigate a chemical spill at 1 Odell Plaza in Yonkers on Friday morning.
An employee at the business park, located off of Executive Boulevard, reported that he inadvertently mixed two chemicals that caused some noxious fumes, police said.
Emergency personnel arrived on the scene around 9:30 a.m. and determined that the fumes may have entered the ventilations system. 




Businesses at 1 Odell Plaza, including Equinox Fitness and North American Wireless, as well as those in the adjacent building were evacuated as a precautionary measure. A day care center was also evacuated though no children were in the building at the time of the incident. 
Deputy Fire Chief Thomas Fitzpatrick said as of noon the Yonkers Fire Department has the spill “contained, neutralized and collected in a prescribed drum.”
One person brought themself to the hospital, but didn't have symptoms at the time, officials said.
The Yonkers Fire Department is currently checking the air quality in the HVAC systems before they let anyone else back in the building. A cleanup company from is arriving from Long Island shortly to cleansed the building.
Those with concerns or questions about the incident can contact the Yonkers Police Department at (914) 377-7900.
http://yonkers.dailyvoice.com/police-fire/chemical-spill-causes-evacuation-yonkers