New plan in the works to halt Banjar Panji-1 well mudflow

Thousands of distressed residents in Sidoarjo, East Java, will have to wait at least three months to see if a new plan can halt the torrent of mud from a May 29 industrial accident that has overrun their homes, a turnpike and local factories, The Jakarta Post reported Saturday.

PT Energi Mega Persada, main shareholder of Lapindo Brantas Inc., which owns the Banjar Panji-1 exploration well site where the disaster occurred, revealed the plan Friday after a previous method failed to work.

That plan relied on a reentry well and side-tracking of the effluent. PT Energi Mega Persada?s chief operating officer Faiz Shahab said the side-tracking had to be stopped because there was damage to the casing at a depth of between 1,060 and 1,500 feet, due to land movement near the well drilling site.

The side-tracking also needed to be replaced since the temporary ponds for the diverting of the mud could no longer be raised. Currently, the pond along the drilling site has reached 15 meters above the ground surface.

Faiz said the new method would use three rig relief wells placed about 200 meters from the accident site. ?With the new method, we predict the mudflow will stop by mid November. But until now, we still can?t make sure the source of the blowout.?

The team has continued to increase the height of eight ponds established for the mudflow, although two have already collapsed.

A team from the Surabaya Technology Institute earlier recommended that the ponds only reach a height of two meters. However, even the ponds farthest from the well drilling site have reached more than five meters high.

Aris Setyadi of the team in charge of the ponds from the Public Works Research center said it planned to extend the range of the ponds, which would mean the permanent relocation of residents in affected areas.

?We also plan to cover the ponds? walls with synthetic materials to make them stronger and to allow water to be separated from the mud.?

Water separated from the mud, he added, would be dumped into the sea through a 20-kilometer pipe after it underwent treatment to prevent damage to the ecosystem.

?The mud itself will be used for industry,? he said.

An expert staff from the Bandung Institute of Technology?s structure and mineral affiliation body, Budi Lationo, said the mud could be turned into micro concrete building material. (*)