Java sinks deeper into toxic crisis

Java sinks deeper into toxic crisis

TOXIC mud still spurting from a gas drilling well part-owned by Australian mining giant Santos is threatening to mire East Java in a full-scale disaster.

Unable to prevent millions of tonnes of mud from blocking highways and rail links, experts propose to divert the flow into the ocean, risking another environmental catastrophe.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono visited the disaster zone south of Surabaya yesterday, after thousands more villagers were evacuated when the rising mud breached levees.

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Morons! :shk:

For two months mud has flowed from an exploratory well near Porong, inundating 25 square kilometres, putting 1000 people in hospital with breathing difficulties and forcing more than 10,000 from their homes.

sarcasim follows......................
2 months!?! oil companies are strapped for moneyand are not very profitable, ( so says some info)
.....www.abovetopsecret.com... how are they suppose to stop what they started.........

pitty the corporations for putting up with all the politics and red tape...........................................................

This is a very sad situation. I can't believe this has gone on this long.

Originally posted by loam

(..)
Unable to prevent millions of tonnes of mud from blocking highways and rail links, experts propose to divert the flow into the ocean, risking another environmental catastrophe.

Into the ocean!?


Some people have excellent ideas to solve important problems...


[edit on 14-8-2006 by Ptolomeo]

To add fuel to the fire.
I think these people need to have the sludge sent to thier backyards,
basements, houses ect....
I can not take much more of this crap.

Santos today reported record sales revenue of $1.3 billion for the first half of 2006, an increase of 29% on the corresponding period for 2005.

www.santos.com...


[edit on 15-8-2006 by R3KR]

Okay, I've found out a few more details on this. This thing has been spewing 1/2 million bbl/day since May 28th. The liquid is coming from a 300 F zone and the mud at the surface has a temperature around 200 - 225 F. So not only has it flooded two villages out, but it is killing all plant life.

The drilling company is Lapindo Brantas Inc. - which is owned by a wealthy Indonesian by the way - news reports are stating people will be prosecuted for negligence on this.

The episode is set to become an economic and public relations disaster for Santos and one of Indonesia's most powerful men, Welfare Minister Aburizal Bakrie, whose companies co-own the gas well. A firm controlled by Mr Bakrie's family firm also owns the company doing the drilling, Lapindo, which is likely to be held liable for the damage.

The driller hit an underground cavern connecting to a geothermal fault line and the crap is spewing to surface via this fault line.

In addition, this was an offshore platform at which they had drilled three or four shallow prospecting holes in addition to the one that communicated to the fault line, those holes are spewing as well, so it's already been spewing into the ocean.

Here's what concerns me, this thing is very close to several volcanoes (which goes without saying because if you're in Java you're close to several volcanoes), and not all that far from Mt. Merapi, which has been extremely active (has caused at least two deaths and large-scale evacuations) all this year.



I hope they haven't done something that could let the overbearing pressure on a particular volcano release, and allow the magma column to become unstable.

This could be much worse than just hot mud.

If anyting the cavern would empty triggering a earth quake, which could of course spark volcano activity. How long will we give our enviroment and our health to the oil companies?

Here is a post I made not long after becoming a member here. This is the concern I have about the proximity of the fault line to nearby volcanoes. If the outgassing taking place is causing a pressure differentiation that could create movement in a magma column "top cap", it could result in a blow-out in the magma column.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

Could that really happen ?
like popping a balloon ?

Nah...not like popping a balloon. Like when you get the little bubbles as your pancake cooks. I'm assuming, of course, you've cooked a pancake - not everybody has. But it's like when the blow-hole forms in your pancake dough, it's basically the same mechanism. Don't know if there is anything to my theory on that, but even if there isn't, this being in a highly volcanic area and spewing from a geothermal fault is scary.

This is amazing to me...

I mean..I'm stunned at how long this has been going on for, and how little we're hearing about it, and how nothing is being done about it. The main American news outlets are covering undercover kittens and drunken movie stars and thinly veiled advertisements for the new Microsoft console, all while this is going on? If that doesn't piss people off, I think they need to check themselves for a pulse.

This is from the article loam linked to in his original post.

Once the rainy season arrives in October, locals believe the mud will burst through the dams.

So..that's not good news.

And they can't very well dump all that crap into the ocean, can they? Well, I guess they're not going to have much choice...

www.asianews.it...

The ownership of the gas mine is divided among two local companies, PT Lapindo Brantas (50%) and PT MedcoEnergi Oil&Gas Brantas (32%) and the Australian leader in the sector, Santos Ltd (18%). The well is 3km deep. The companies said the disaster was due to “natural causes” so the government should make good the damages. Lapindo's management claimed the May 27 earthquake centered in Yogyakarta, had opened up deep faults underground, thus causing the mud to flow out. Many experts said the epicenter of the quake was over 300km away and this distance would have largely diminished the force of the blow.

At first, government experts sent to look into the causes of the mudflow said it was difficult for firms to "predict" such mishaps because of the "complex nature of the country's geology". Political analysts have observed that the Lapindo company belongs to the rich Bakrie family. All the same, in mid-June, a letter was issued by MedcoEnergi, accusing its partner, Lapido of “gross negligence” for seriously violating security measures. In particular, Lapindo allegedly failed to put a nine-inch (around 23cm) thick protective casing in the well to a depth of 8,500 feet (2,365m). This, according to experts, would have assured that the well was closed and prevented the outflow of mud, which would not have been able to escape from the ground – which is what apparently happened.

[edit on 16-8-2006 by WyrdeOne]

Here is an interesting website established for the specific purpose of seeking help for the problem. A good majority of the site is in Indonesian, but some of it is in English:

And here are some specific details about the well:



And it looks like the decision has been made:

Lapindo's Mud to be Disposed of in the Sea

Mud flowing from PT Lapindo Brantas Inc's drilling site will soon be siphoned off to the Madura Strait. The removal is done through pipes 20-inches in diameter and 10 kilometers in length from the processing dam which was built in Jabon, Sidoarjo.

The pipe was to be installed along the side of the toll road to the coast along the Porong River bank. Tempo observed there were piles of pipes including those at Keboguyang Village, about four kilometers away from mud center.

“Pipes are being installed as fast as possible so that mud can be soon siphoned to the sea. This is to reduce the mud volume in the dam,” said Budi Susanto, spokesperson of PT Lapindo Brantas yesterday (14/8).

More...

:shk:

There is also this:

Four villages buried by mud in Indonesia

Mudflows have buried more than 1,600 houses and other buildings in four villages in Indonesia's East Java province as authorities have so far failed to control the mud flowing out from a drilling project, a report said Wednesday.

The government has been struggling for a solution to overcome the mudflow crisis beginning more than two months ago, apart from building temporary dam surrounding the areas.

The hot, toxic mud has now breached the dam and displaced more than 10,000 people in the town of Sidoarjo, some 750 km east of Jakarta.

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What a freakin' mess!

[edit on 16-8-2006 by loam]

Philippine island's coast blackened by worst oil spill

Stunned locals could only watch as waves deposited thick, black ooze onto nearby beaches.

The worst oil spill in the country's history has also coated mangroves, rocks and fishing boats along the shoreline of this town on the southwestern coast of Guimaras island, which is bearing the brunt of the disaster.

"These people cannot clean up this mess by themselves. They need international support," provincial governor Joaquin Carlos Nava told reporters.

The article continues:

Much of the tanker's 500,000 gallons on bunker oil has already spilled but so far no equipment has arrived in the town to help in the clean-up.

...

Despite international appeals for help from the national government, there is no evidence of any equipment arriving in this town of 31,000 people or elsewhere along the 200 or so kilometers (124 miles) of Guimaras's southwest coast that has been engulfed by the slick.

...

The government estimates the clean-up will take a year or more.

[edit on 16-8-2006 by loam]

checking some info...will post back when confirmed

[edit on 8-16-2006 by Valhall]

Valhall:

You might find these photos interesting:





See also, Paleo Collapse

Concerning noticeable geologic impact, look at what this article says about subsidence taking place in the area:

Porong district sinking under mud, experts say

With hot toxic mud continuing to gush from a gas well in East Java, the surface of the affected land has been sinking, changing its physical characteristics and making it unsuitable for a residential area, experts say.

Veteran geologist Andang Bachtiar said the land's "subsidence" actually began several days after the mudflow started May 29 in Porong, Sidoarjo.

He estimated that the land has been sinking by between two and three centimeters per month.

More...

There are other interesting tidbits within the article, but here is just one more:

A senior geologist with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Iskandar Zulkarnain, said the mudflow was the world's largest incidence of sludge gushing out of the earth.

[edit on 17-8-2006 by loam]

Okay, that information makes some things make more sense. Thank you, loam!

What I hear is that they had built a relief well on a nearby pad and that the pad just collapsed and they have to start all over now. Which pushes all the operations to try to get this thing under control out possibly 2 months or more. Which means this crap will just keep bubbling up at 1/2 million bbl/day until some sign of slowing.

With regard to that the decision seems to have been made (pipes into the ocean) I feel this is not a local problem and as it will affect the whole planet...

Why are Governments not helping to deal with it?

If you look at all the disasters (natural or not) affecting the Earth...
I wonder
If we are unable to take care of our planet, where will we going to live?
Where will we fight one to each other if we have no earth to live on?

Originally posted by R3KR
To add fuel to the fire.
I think these people need to have the sludge sent to thier backyards,
basements, houses ect....
I can not take much more of this crap.

My thoughts exactly. Like, since they made the mess, why dont we divert the flow into their swiming pools and private lakes instead?

Indonesians look for miracle to save homes from mud

Village chief Haji Hasan is looking for a miracle to save what is left of the Indonesian hamlet of Kedungbendo from a torrent of mud flowing unchecked from an exploratory oil well.

The mud has already swamped an area larger than Monaco, triggering an environmental disaster that has inundated four villages and wiped out 20 factories and fields of crops in the Sidoarjo area of East Java province.

So far, engineers have failed to stop the flow that started on May 29 when what has become a sea of gray mud started oozing from a hole about 490 feet from the Benjar Panji oil well, causing 10,000 residents to flee their homes.

More...

Also in the article:

...The mudflow has also disrupted a key road linking Indonesia's second largest city of Surabaya to its industrial suburbs...

And finally:

Efforts to plug the mud flow with concrete have so far failed. The company is now starting work on a new technique to stop the mud by slant digging from three relief wells.

"If the mud burst really comes from our well, this mechanism guarantees a stoppage. From the beginning, we have said the mud burst did not come from the Banjar Panji well," said Yuniwati Teryana, Lapindo's chief spokeswoman.

"Everyone is frustrated because of the uncertainty. We are trying our best but we do not know what has caused the burst. Only God knows the answer," she said.

Several experts say the mudflow could have been triggered by a crack at about 6,000 feet in the well. Another theory has speculated volcanic activities in the wake of the May 27 Java earthquake may also played a role.

It's interesting to note the possible natural cause of the crisis...

Regardless, let's hope these poor people find a solution and quickly!

Thanks for the update, loam. No matter how this is fixed and nobody who gets it done - it needs to be done 4 months ago! These poor people have been through so much, and now this undying nightmare.

Please keep us up-to-date.