Israel’s Environment Protection Ministry has recommended that the country’s Green Police investigate the phosphate mining operation of Israel Chemicals Ltd.’s (ICL) Rotem Amfert Negev subsidiary over the alleged flow of phosphate sludge into open mining pits close to the Zin stream bed in the Negev desert in Southern Israel, according to a Times of Israel report.
Israel’s Green Police have the authority to arrest, fine, and charge those suspected of breaking environmental and other relevant laws.
Representatives of ICL Rotem Amfert Negev were summoned by the ministry in March to a hearing about allegations of breaching the state Water Law and water pollution-related regulations the previous month. At the time, the ministry deemed the sludge not to be hazardous.
However, according to this week’s report, citing an Environment Protection Ministry statement, the Ministry’s Southern District Manager has decided to recommend transferring the case to the Green Police for further investigation.
ICL Rotem Amfert Negev operates open pit phosphate mines at two locations in the Negev desert, at Rotem and Zin. In late June 2017, phosphogypsum water from a storage pool at Rotem Amfert’s phosphate fertilizers plant in Mishor Rotem spilled into a nearby dry riverbed via a nature reserve to the Dead Sea, alleging causing widespread ecological damage, following the partial collapse of a dike on June 30, 2017 (GM July 7, 2017).
A class action suit was filed against Rotem Amfert subsidiary in August of that year, stemming from the damage resulting from the incident (GM Aug. 25, 2017).