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Sidoarjo mud flow

Contents

[edit] Mitigation

Although several attempts have been carried out to block the mud flow, the mud is still erupting. The total mud volume is still rapidly increasing and it is feared that cleaning the mud up would be very difficult as the mud gets dried. Furthermore the dried mud will create another problem, a mud flood, when the rainy season comes. WALHI, an Indonesian non-governmental watchdog on environmental issues, estimated the cost of cleaning up alone was already more than US$ 200 million.[1] Three months after the event, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono revealed five steps to curb the Lusi disaster, namely flood handling management, flood victims resettlement, mud utilization, infrastructure protection and economic development preservation.[2]

[edit] Dikes construction

Immediate attempts during the drilling process which had caused the event was to pump a mixture of cement and mud back to the borehole in order to seal it. It seemed work until a huge quantity of mud erupted from large cracks in the ground nearby. The only possible immediate attempt to alleviate the mud flood disaster at that time was to build a network of dikes to prevent further overflowing. Meanwhile, engineers hired by PT Lapindo Brantas, including United States and Australian experts, tried to stop the ongoing eruption.[3]

However, the mud is still erupting with unprecendented volume. Dams and dikes could not hold vast quantity of hot mud every day. On 26 September 2006, one of the barriers failed to hold the mud, inundating nearby villages and injured six workers.[3] The barrier breach has been predicted by the local people, who had fled the week before, but the workers failed to anticipate it. On 10 August 2006, the mud breached one more dam at Siring village after which 5,680 people had to be evacuated.[4]

[edit] Channeling mud to the sea

Having been unable to stop the erupting mud and feared of the coming rain season, the government of East Java province developed a plan to channel the mud onto Java Sea.[3] PT Lapindo Brantas subsequently prepared 20 km long of steel pipe network for the plan, starting from the pond near Porong River to collect the mud water and ends at the sea near Sidoarjo.[5] The plan did not go smoothly at the beginning due to environmental issues. Several environmental groups[citation needed] and experts from the agricultural university in Bogor[6] heavily criticised the plan in the fear of threatening ecological life in the Madura Strait, the plan of which only to migrate environmental disaster from inland to the sea.

The office of the ministry of environmental affairs initially rejected the idea, but later the Minister Rachmat Witoelar finally issued a permit of the plan with the requirement that the mud must be treated and processed to separate solid waste and to let only normal water to the sea.[4] A team consists of PT Lapindo Brantas, Ministry of Environmental Affairs, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember and Institut Teknologi Bandung built the mud processing facilities to ensure no mud toxic enters the sea.[5] The cost of building the facilities is in the responsibility of PT Lapindo Brantas.[4]

[edit] Submerging neighbour villages

[edit] Concrete balls

[edit] Mitigation attempts news

  1. 21 August 2006 — The plan to submerge Jatirejo village as mud pool was disapproved by lawmaker. Meanwhile, the increasing amount mud flow threatened other new villages when the dikes could not stop it. ANTARA
  2. 17 September 2006 — Seven pumps, each has capacity of 300–350 liter per second, were prepared to step up pumping the mud onto the Porong river. ANTARA
  3. 26 September 2006 — Almost 3,000 families will be resettled and the plan for channeling the mud to the sea was undertaken. The total cost was estimated at US$ 162 million and it would be born by PT Lapindo Brantas, not the government. IHT
  4. 20 January 2007 — The plan of dropping concrete balls was underestimated by scientists. A scientist from the Disaster Prevention Research Institute at Kyoto University, James Mori, stated that the mud has now coming from a very large crater thus it needs a very large structure that can plug it. Scientific American
  5. 21 January 2007 — Indonesian engineers developed a plan to drop 2,000 high-density concrete balls to be plugged into the borehole in attempt to stop the mud eruptions. It was hoped that the balls would drop the flow by 50–70%. However, an Indonesian geologist underestimated the plan that it would not solve the problem, because the fracture systems cannot be simply halted by balls and it is feared that the pressure would cause others eruptions in different places. ANTARA
  6. 27 February 2007 — Workers managed to put four chains of concrete balls (each links to four individual balls weighing each for 400–500 kg or 880–1,100 pounds) into the main vent. There are a total of 375 chains to be inserted into the 50 m (165 feet) borehole. ANTARA
  7. http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/10/06/asia/web.1006mud.php

[edit] References

  1. ^
  2. ^
  3. ^ a b c "Indonesia mudflow breaks barriers, injures six", ANTARA, 26 September 2006. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  4. ^ a b c "Environment minister accepts plan to direct mud flow into sea", ANTARA, 12 August 2006. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
  5. ^ a b "Lapindo mud water to be dumped in Java Sea", ANTARA, 19 August 2006. Retrieved on March 9, 2007.
  6. ^ "Expert against idea to channel mudflow-extracted water to sea", ANTARA, 4 September 2006. Retrieved on March 10, 2007.
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