Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – The government Monday began dumping into the sea mud gushing from a gas exploration well in Sidoarjo, East Java, amid protests against the move by local farmers and environmentalists. The disposal, a trial using the Porong river after previous trials failed, was carried out with untreated mud.
The mudflow in Sidoarjo has submerged villages and left thousands of residents homeless and with no means of making a living.
National mudflow disaster mitigation team spokesman Rudi Novrianto said that once a trial was successful, three mud-extracting machines, each able to remove 18.5 cubic meters of mud per second, would run 20 hours a day.
The dumping needed to start immediately, he said, to prevent further destruction should the embankments containing the mud collapse ahead of the rainy season later this year.
Rudi said the gas well continued to spew out around 126,000 cubic meters of mud every day, much more than the 50,000 cubic meters that gushed out on May 29, when it first burst.
Exploration well operator PT Lapindo Brantas Inc., which has been blamed for the disaster, has said it is committed to compensating those affected by the mudflow.
Lapindo's main shareholder, PT Energi Mega Persada, owned by businessman and Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie, recently announced it would sell its shares in Lapindo because financing the company and the mudflow's financial excesses was costing it too much money.
Sidoarjo Fish Farmers Association deputy chairman Ali Subhan said the mud dumping was disadvantaging local farmers because the toxic sludge was killing fish and shrimp in the surrounding waters.
"The mud is putting the lives of fish farmers here in danger. Fishermen and farmers from Madura, Pasuran, Sidoarjo and Probolinggo have lodged a protest with the President and Lapindo, but there has been no response," he said.
Ali said no compensation had been paid by the government or Lapindo to the farmers affected by the mudflow.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the mud be dumped into the sea in an attempt to tackle the problem quickly. However, when the problem first arose, it took some weeks for the President to comment and instruct Lapindo and the related government agencies to stop the mudflow.
He also said that he promised that the mud would not completely submerge any villages. Now several villages have succumbed to the sludge.
State Minister for the Environment Rachmat Witoelar, along with Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi, initially opposed dumping the mud into the sea because it posed a hazard to the environment.
The two eventually turned, however, and backed the sea-dumping plan after efforts to stop the mudflow came to no avail and Yudhoyono ordered that the mud be dumped in the ocean.
The mudflow started after an accident deep in Lapindo's gas exploration shaft. The company claims it was triggered by a powerful earthquake that rattled Yogyakarta and its surrounding areas last May, while others blame Lapindo for not sealing the exploration shaft correctly.