
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 9, 1991                   TAG: 9102090393
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MANAMA, BAHRAIN                                LENGTH: Short

OIL SLICK FORCES DESALINATION PLANT TO CLOSE

In the first apparent industrial fallout from the giant oil slick drifting down the Persian Gulf, Saudi Arabia was forced to close a water desalination plant on its northeast coast Friday to prevent petroleum from fouling the machinery.

David Olsen, a spokesman for Saudi Arabia's Meteorological and Environment Protection Agency, described the closure of the relatively small, fresh water plant at Safiniyah - about 60 miles north of the industrial city of Jubayl - as precautionary.

But environmental experts said that the action bodes ill for the 30 water desalination plants that line the Saudi coast farther south, now in the direct path of the huge oil slick.

Olsen explained that the Safiniyah water plant was closed because it works by reverse osmosis, a process akin to passing salt water through a huge, finely meshed sieve to remove the salt. "The reverse osmosis component at the plant can't handle any level of oiling," he said. - Los Angeles Times

by CNB