Jiyeh power station oil spill

The Jiyeh Power Station oil spill is an environmental disaster caused by the release of heavy fuel oil into the eastern Mediterranean after storage tanks at the thermal power station in Jiyeh, Lebanon, 30 km (19 mi) south of Beirut, were bombed by the Israeli Air force on July 14 and July 15, 2006 during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. The plant's damaged tanks leaked up to 30,000 tonnes of oil into the eastern Mediterranean Sea, A 10 km wide oil slick covered 170 km of coastline, and threatened Turkey and Cyprus. The slick killed fish, threatened the habitat of endangered green sea turtles, and potentially increased the risk of cancer.

Although Al Jazeera compared the scale of the oil spill to that of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, later assessment found that the volume spilled was 30 000 tonnes of the higher estimates compared to 42 000 tonnes For Exxon Valdez oil spill. The coastline affected was between 150–170 km, while the Exxon Valdez oil spill affected 2,100 km of coastline.

According to Lebanon's Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf, Israeli jets deterred firemen from putting out the fire at the storage units, which continued for 10 days, and the Israeli Navy blockade stopped Lebanese and foreign officials from surveying the damage of the spill.

The spill affected one-third of Lebanon's coastline. Beaches and rocks were covered in a black sludge up to Byblos, north of Beirut and extended into the southern parts of Syria. The slick killed fish, and threatens the habitat of the endangered green sea turtle as well as the endangered logger head sea turtle.

The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution by 170 votes to 6 (Australia, Canada, Israel, Marshall Islands, Palau, and United States voting against) calling upon Israel to assume responsibility for compensation for the costs of repairing the environmental damage and restoration of the marine environment.

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Wikipedia