A month after Israel's Mediterranean coastline was polluted by crude oil in one of the worst environmental disasters in decades, the Environmental Protection Ministry announced Wednesday that the "event" was over and the state of emergency had been lifted.
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The Environmental Protection Ministry said that local authorities would continue to work on the beaches that were still not graded "blue" – meaning low-level pollution or clean – according to its beach map.
Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel said Wednesday morning, "After an especially intense month, we are moving to the next stage and continuing to support coastal authorities in their work to clean and remove the tar to allow the beaches to be fully cleaned. We thank the employees of the ministry, the local authorities, the volunteers, and the environmental groups, primarily Ecoocean, with whose help the incident was addressed quickly and effectively.
"We are continuing to work with the International Monetary Fund to demand compensation for the serious damage to Israel's beaches," Gamliel added.
A statement from the ministry noted that in the past few weeks, intensive clean-up efforts had restored 82% of the country's 101 official beaches to use.
"If we look at all the beaches, official and open, 61% are clean or have only very low levels of pollution; 36% are graded as having low-level to mid-level pollution; and only 3% of beaches are significantly pollution – mainly, Selaim Beach," the ministry said.
As of Wednesday, over 650 tons of mixed tar have been removed from the beaches, the equivalent of 83% of the pollution that washed ashore from the tanker.
The ministry also said it would work with local authorities to set up diving teams to conduct surveys to locate masses of tar underway, as well as look into the possibility of conducting an underwater cleaning campaign based on the results of those surveys.
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