Industry A Modern Evil In Ancient Sodom?

RESORT OWNERS and environmentalists worry that factory emissions and the steady evaporation of the Dead Sea will kill off both tourism and the area's fragile ecosystem. -----------------------------------------------------------------

SODOM, Israel - In this spot of biblical wickedness, the Dead Sea's treasures pour forth.

White mountains of potash - used for fertilizer - fill warehouses. Workers ship table salt in 2,000-pound bags. Factories refine minerals to satisfy almost any beauty need, from cleanser to mud that soothes the scalp.

Now there's a new resource that may be more lucrative than all: magnesium, the amazingly strong and lightweight metal coveted by automakers, among others.

In celebration of a magnesium plant's grand opening recently, the partners in the project threw a party of dizzying proportions - cocktails for 2,000 people and fireworks streaking the desert sky for 15,000 spectators.

But all is not well in Sodom.

After more than four decades of unchecked growth for Dead Sea Works, Israel's industrial giant on the Dead Sea shores, the state has for the first time won a promise of environmental review of emissions from the plants' smokestacks.

In a private meeting with the Dead Sea Works two months ago, the Environmental Ministry threatened to sue the company unless it allowed inspections. Since then, the industry has allowed state inspectors onto the site twice.

"All the time, Dead Sea Works claims that they keep the environment clean. But my people have told me, `Just look what comes out of the chimney,' " said Nehama Ronen, Israel's director general of the environment. "We told them the party's over."

A unique body of water

The blue-green sea, the saltiest body of water on Earth, is set in the desolate Jordan Rift Valley, surrounded by cliffs and impressive archaeological sites, including the ancient fortress Masada.

The sea's value rests in its uniqueness - nearly 1 million tourists visit annually on the Israeli side alone, bobbing in the buoyant waters for a thrill or for treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis. But it is also home to a rare ecosystem that supports animals and plants that thrive around nearby oases.

Environmentalists and resort owners worry that industrial emissions and the steady evaporation of the sea will eventually kill off both tourism and some of the plants and animals.

The biggest concern? In the words of a report last year by EcoPeace, a group of environmentalists in Israel, Jordan and Egypt: "If industry continues to operate in the same way and, in addition, water continues to be diverted from the Dead Sea, it may not be long before the Dead Sea dries up completely."

The southern end of the Dead Sea is mostly the preserve of two industrial giants: Arab Potash in Jordan and Dead Sea Works in Israel. The companies operate with almost complete independence.

In 1961, Israel handed over nearly 3 percent of the state's land to Dead Sea Works "with the explicit instructions to exploit the natural resources to the utmost," Dead Sea Works Chairman Uri Ben-Noon said in a 1993 interview.

Sea is shrinking

At about the same time, Israel began diverting water from the sea's main water source, the Jordan River. That diversion and, to a lesser extent, the industrial evaporation of water have caused the Dead Sea to shrink dramatically.

It has become two separate bodies of water, one north and one south, with a dried salt bed in-between.

In 1994 and 1995, Israel's Environmental Ministry began to challenge the industrial preserve. But the initiatives were repeatedly blocked by Dead Sea Works' powerful political ally: then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Ronen, the ministry's current director general, said the recent push may succeed for two reasons - Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing fanatic, and the Dead Sea Works, now in the process of privatization, may fear a legal challenge.

The company dismisses allegations that it hurts the environment.

"We have the image of a bully, someone raping nature, destroying the landscape," Yossi Ron, the assistant to the president, said in his office at corporate headquarters in Sodom. "(But) we put huge sums of money to try to minimize the changes to the surrounding areas."

Ron, 39, cited the spending of "millions of dollars" to build dikes that protect nearby hotels and the extreme care of constructing an 11-mile conveyor belt "that even went around a tree. We didn't uproot it."

The magnesium plant, a $400 million project in conjunction with Germany's Volkswagen, is the largest industrial expansion in Israel's history. It has the potential to double the size of Dead Sea Works.

An unlimited supply?

"The Dead Sea is probably the world's largest reservoir of magnesium," Ron said, as he gave a tour of the new plant, which is nearly three-quarters of a mile long. "And we won't stop with magnesium. More products are on the way. As far as Dead Sea Works is concerned, there's an unlimited supply of raw material" from the sea.

The magnesium production process starts when a raw material called carnalite is scooped from evaporation beds, then dried and mixed with chlorinators at extremely high temperatures. Machines shoot electrical currents through the melted minerals, separating the magnesium. In sealed metal ovens, the magnesium floats to the top, where machines vacuum it out and pour it into molds.

The result is an ingot, or bar, of magnesium. Dead Sea Works hopes to produce 27,000 tons in the first year.

For environmentalists, the magnesium production by itself isn't a cause for alarm. But they see it as part of two larger problems: industry being above the law, and the lack of a cohesive, long-term plan for the area by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians.

"Its legal status is . . . a reflection of a system of government that puts corporate heads above the law because of economic clout," said Alon Tal, attorney for the Israel Union for Environmental Defense.

Risk of destruction

Gidon Bromberg, secretary general of EcoPeace, cited the lack of coordination for the development. For instance, Jordan and Israel are both racing to build 50,000 new hotel rooms; the area now has 2,200 rooms. "The Dead Sea is at risk of being destroyed without a master plan," Bromberg said. "We are in a situation today where half of the Dead Sea has disappeared, and while industry doesn't deserve all the blame, industry can't deny it's part of the problem." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Products of the Dead Sea

The latest product of the Dead Sea is magnesium. It also produces:

Chemicals:

-- Table salt, road salt, chlorine, potash (used in agriculture and industry) and bromine (used to control dust in agriculture, among other things).

Cosmetic items:

-- Cleanser, toner, roll-on deodorant, spa bath salts, shower gel, moisturizer, mud mask, facial exfoliants, and hair and scalp mud.

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