Springs around Mayon drying up – Phivolcs

DARAGA, Albay – Small springs have dried up while the water supply from the Budiao spring here has dropped as Mayon volcano started to act up again, according to scientists from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) and engineers from the Daraga Water District.

Phivolcs resident volcanologist Ed Laguerta said a team went to barangays Budiao and Salvacion about eight kilometers from the foot of Mayon on Monday and made the observation as part of continued monitoring of the volcano’s abnormal parameters. Laguerta said they conducted drilling operation to find out whether the water level has receded in those areas due to slow rising magma.

“If the magma intrusion is still deep inside the crater, there is a corresponding dilatory effect on the discharge of the ground water level,” Laguerta said.

“But when the magma body is near the ground level there is also a compressional effect which enables the springs to recover as their discharge volume returns,” he explained.

Laguerta said there could be one explanation for the small springs drying up and the drop in the water output at Budiao spring.

“That’s why we have to drill so we can get the data which we can use to explain Mayon’s abnormal situation,” he said.

Even the water production of Budiao spring, one of the main sources of water for some 8,014 household consumers in Daraga, has dropped to 7,740 cubic meters in April from 8,100 cubic meters in March and from 8,399 in February this year.

“When Mayon is becoming abnormal, the water supply from our Budiao spring is affected, as I’ve observed before the 1993 and 2009 eruptions,” said Abundio Balde Jr., Daraga Water District’s engineering and construction division manager.

Aside from the drop in the spring’s production, Balde also observed a corresponding decrease in water pressure at 22 percent from March to April.

Budiao spring is about eight kilometers from the foot of Mayon.

Balde said he went to Phivolcs office on May 3 to offer his personal observation that the volcano’s abnormal activity was manifest in its thin whitish sulfur dioxide emission, increasing temperature readings and the drying up of small springs in the Daraga area fronting the volcano.

Balde said he would recommend water rationing to address the water shortage because higher areas in the municipality will not have drinking water.

“It would take four to six months before it would erupt,” he added.

Laguerta said the volcano remains silent since yesterday since there was no significant change in its parameters during the past monitoring period.

Phivolcs raised the alert level at Mayon from zero to 1 late Friday afternoon after a faint crater glow was observed, a slight inßation as well as an ash explosion last May 7 that killed four European tourists and a local guide.