All surface holes have to be filled in immediately. No Halliburton or Bechtel either. There is a reason why their work is shoddy.

Manholes and storm grates have to be filled in immediately before more sludge enters the water drainage into nearby rivers and streams.  Kindly use   And kindly use competent help.  Companies as large as Halliburton and Bechtel ALWAYS produce cost overruns and shoddy work because they are TOO BIG and there expertise is lacking for the dynamics they operate in.  They underbid and then worry about the rest later.  It is far better to have a general manager competent in handling such projects and employ many small companies to service the project.  There will realistic costs given at the beginning of a project and cooperation among MANY to get it done well and on time.

I want people to think about this.  If there are many small construction contractors to produce a product, the final outcome can be maintained by many experts and the less productive and incompetent companies will be weeded out.  Large projects are simply completed well and on time when many are carrying the responsitliby and the outcome rather than one huge company that will abuse their power when their contract is issue.

The way I see this is there needs to be an excavation at 'a' terminal end of the sludge.  In other words a SECOND containment hole.  The path of the sludge is somewhat known although another rupture might prove different.  A path where the MOST sludge traveled needs to be sandbagged to create a 'pathway' for the sludge to travel to a new containment hole.  I don't really see any other choice.  To allow the sludge to travel by gravity in any direction is a huge folly.  The sludge has to be managed to contain it soon.

The other variable to placement of the second containment hole can be based on weakening regions of the current containment area and the 'potential' path the sludge may travel.  At any rate, if a collapse of the entire sludge pond is eminent then there needs to be plans to manage it and not simply reek havoc and kill more people.