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Indonesia Drops Balls Into Volcano

Indonesian workers prepare concrete balls which will be used to help stem a massive mudflow at a gas exploration site in Sidoarjo, East Java, Indonesia, Friday, Feb. 23, 2007. An Indonesian official hit back at critics of a plan to control the gushing mud volcano by dropping the balls into its crater, saying something has to be done to stop a nine-month-long eruption that has displaced 11,000 people. (AP Photo/Trisnadi)

(AP) -- Indonesian engineers temporarily halted an attempt to plug a fissure that has been gushing mud for nine months, after a steel cable hoisting cement balls into the crater broke Saturday, officials said.
The hot, noxious mud has displaced 13,000 people and covered dozens of factories and thousands of homes. The mud has blocked major roads into the country's second largest city, Surabaya.

Over the next few weeks, authorities plan to drop nearly 1,500 concrete balls, weighing up to 500 pounds each, into the geyser. A string of four balls was successfully lowered into the hole Saturday in heavy rain and wind, said Rudi Novrianto, a spokesman for a government task force handling the disaster.

"Thank God, we have managed to drop one chain, equipped with sensors to monitor pressure and depth," he said. "We had to halt the process because of the broken steel cable. We will continue tomorrow after repairing it."

Officials had hoped to drop between 5 and 10 strands of balls into the mud volcano on Saturday.

If successful, the project will decrease by up to 70 percent the volume of mud now being channeled by a system of dams into a nearby river and out to sea. The mud has been surging at a rate that could fill 50 Olympic-sized swimming pools a day.

Critics, however, doubt it will succeed and warn it could be dangerous or that deep underground pressure could push the mud up elsewhere.