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

DATE: MONDAY, February 11, 1991                   TAG: 9102110149
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: MANAMA, BAHRAIN                                LENGTH: Short

SAUDI DESALINATION PLANT `BACK TO NORMAL'

A desalination plant shut down to protect against oil contamination returned to operation as winds slowed the progress of slicks in the Persian Gulf, a U.S. Coast Guard official said Sunday.

At least three main oil slicks and many smaller offshoots threaten to harm the gulf's teeming bird and marine life and clog the desalting plants that provide two-thirds of the drinking water for Saudi Arabia's 18 million people. Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Paul Milligan said the plant in Safaniya, operated by the giant Saudi Aramco oil company, was "back to normal."

Officials announced Friday that the plant had been closed after traces of oil was detected near the intake pipes. It was the first desalination plant reported closed because of oil spilled during the war.

The facility, capable of processing 2 million gallons of drinking water a day, is one of two at Safaniya, an industrial city about 50 miles south of the the Kuwaiti border. The other plant, which primarily distills water, was not closed.

- Associated Press

by CNB