playing in the mud...

Mud volcano swallows Java
May 26 '07

One year later, mining companies wrangle and thousands await
compensation in Sidoarjo, Indonesia.
THEY come in pairs - the prophets, witches and psychics - to cast
spells, prayers and offerings on a vast mud lake that has subsumed
nearly 700 hectares around the town of Sidoarjo, forcing more than
43,000 Indonesians from their homes.
Dwarfed by an enormous dyke surrounding the centre of a mud volcano in
East Java, they kneel before the bubbling ooze, with reverential
followers held back at security checkpoints.
Donning a black headscarf and a Javanese blend of Islam and mysticism,
Sri Sunarti scatters water gathered from the grave of a 17th-century
Muslim missionary. An ancient spirit, Semar, had told her she could
halt the mud with prayer, she says.
Excavators continually strengthen and heighten the main dam as plumes
of toxic gas mushroom overhead, with hot mud shooting up to 30 metres
into the air!
Authorities have barred more than two citizens from entering the site
at a time, and they may only walk a few metres along an outer wall, a
kilometre from the central dam.
The sacrificial throwing of live cows, goats and chickens into the
mud has been banned.
One year ago this Tuesday, a gas-exploration well part-owned by the
Australian mining giant Santos exploded, sending a geyser of mud and
toxic gas into the air. Nearby villages and factories were flooded,
the highway and railway were covered, and later East Java's main gas
pipeline ruptured.
Despite all attempts to plug the flow - drilling relief wells and even
dropping concrete balls into its centre - more and more mud spurts
from the volcano -- around 1 million barrels daily.
The rising mudtide covered thousands more homes in March.
The displaced await compensation, mitigation efforts are farcical and
arguments continue over who will bear the multibillion-dollar cost.
There is no end in sight.
Optimists hope the mudflow could dissipate in 30 years, but experts
suggest it may continue for centuries. Twenty-three kilometres of
earth dams have been built in an unsuccessful attempt to contain the
mud, 20 metres deep in parts, and channel it into the nearby Porong
River, then into the sea.
When the Herald visited the site last week, just a trickle of ooze
dribbled from one of eight large pipes above the river. The director
of operations of the mud disaster team, admits they are pumping only a
fraction of what emerges from the volcano because the wrong pumps were
installed.
"They are only fit for water, not for mud!"

Owing to the "complexity of the incident and the dynamic nature of the
ongoing work, there is significant uncertainty surrounding these
issues", Santos has warned in a report to shareholders.

Direct mitigation of the mudflow and buying the land and houses it
covers would be Lapindo's responsibility - an estimated $540 million.
Parliamentarians have threatened to overturn the decree, complaining
that all costs should be met by the miners.
Walhi describes it as a political conspiracy to avoid corporate responsibility.
Santos had limited influence urging a greater focus on long-term "mud
mitigation to prevent further social, economic and infrastructure
degradation".
Mr Bakrie has denied that the volcano was caused by the gas bore -
blaming an earthquake two days earlier near Yogyakarta, more than 200
kilometres away
The third partner in the well, Medco, said Lapindo's drillers had
been negligent in not inserting a casing around the gas bore which
would have enabled the flow to be plugged after the drill hit a huge
mud bubble, pressurised by gas underneath.
A Bakrie company bought out Medco's share of the well, and its
liabilities, for a token fee last month.
Last year Indonesia's Finance Minister blocked the Bakrie group's
attempt to sell Lapindo to a shelf company offshore as an attempt to
evade responsibility for the incident.

Lapindo has launched a public relations offensive, funding studies
and a geological seminar. Only geologists who said the volcano was a
natural phenomenon were invited to contribute.
A police investigation has determined that negligence was to blame and
recommended 13 Lapindo officials face criminal charges.
Local prosecutors are reluctant to proceed, sending the brief of evidence

back twice for revision.
The head of the Disaster Research Centre at the Surabaya Institute of
Technology has no doubts it was the failure to install a casing along
the drill shaft that caused the disaster. "Because they didn't use a
casing, the mud went wild," he says.
Sidoarjo's catastrophe is "just beginning", he says, and with no known
way to halt the flow it could last hundreds of years.
Meanwhile, most of the more than 43,000 victims await compensation,
many in ramshackle, open-air refugee camps. Lapindo says it has paid
more than $180 million towards the clean-up, evacuation, and rent and
food relief. But only 185 people so far have been compensated for the
loss of their homes.
The problem, according to Lapindo, is that locals must produce
evidence of land ownership and most lack official certificates.

The village of Balongnongo was the first hit by the mud. Zaenul, a
mechanic, did have a land title and has received an initial payment, but
he says no compensation can replace the daily village life of
community celebrations, traditional music and Koran readings.
His family is scattered in rented homes across the district and his
two children must travel 20 kilometres to primary school.
"It was my pride to have built a house from my own sweat, but now it
is gone," he says, adding: "What we need is a place to rest, a house
of our own."