The Ministry of Environmental Protection announced yesterday (Thursday) a water contamination incident on the premises of the Rotem Amfert plant of the ICL Group, an incident caused by sour leachate found by the Eastern Negev Environmental Unit (Yeruham, Tamar and Arad).
Flow of acidic leachate in the area of Rotem Amfert factories in the south \\ Photo: Arad Environmental Unit, Yeruham Tamar
In light of the incident, this morning the Minister of Environmental Protection, Idit Silman, came to closely monitor the plant's activities, including treatment and pumping, and to be updated on the activities of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The minister was accompanied by Dimona Mayor Benny Biton and the ministry's Southern District Director, Amir Salzberg.
The source of the leachate is rainwater that fell on Mount Phosphogypsum a few days ago, swept pollutants from Mount Phosphogypsum and flowed into abandoned mining areas. On the tour, it appears that most of the leachate has already been pumped by the plant, but there is still a large area of sewage left in the area.
Flow of acidic leachate in the south, photo: Arad, Yeruham, Tamar Environmental Unit
Minister Silman clarified to the plant that they must continue to pump and treat all the leachate and also carry out sealing and restoration of the dry phosphogypsum mountain in order to prevent recurring and difficult events of this kind.
As also reported yesterday, the Ministry of Environmental Protection views the pollution caused seriously and will examine in depth the causes and sources of the pollution and, if necessary, will exercise enforcement powers.
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