Race to save historic town from sea of oil

[Englander]

Sarah Smiles in Byblos, Lebanon
August 25, 2006

LEBANON's most famous seafood restaurant, Pepe's Fishing Club at Byblos, has served just three tables since war broke out last month.

After Israel bombed a coastal power plant near Beirut, sending about 15,000 tonnes of fuel oil spilling into the Mediterranean - there have been few customers at this quaint seafood restaurant where Brigitte Bardot once dined.

The ancient city of Byblos, which has been inhabited for 7000 years, is about 35 kilometres north of Beirut, and has been one of the clean-up priorities. With the help of a pump donated by the Norwegians, Lebanese authorities are frantically trying to clean the bay of a thick layer of sludge.

Oussama Kallab, an architect who restores Phoenician artifacts, has volunteered to help clean Byblos's contaminated ruins. Oil has even seeped into the sandstone foundations of a watchtower built by Crusaders.

But after Byblos there are still another 29 sites in Lebanon affected by the devastating spill. And below the surface clogged with huge swathes of black, Greenpeace divers have filmed large areas of oil often several centimetres thick, on the seabed around the bombed Jiyyeh power plant.

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