You only get out what you put in…
…is a rough translation of a saying favoured by the ancient Romans, meaning that hard work pays off. And that especially applies to life here at the Neumayer Station III. To have a life that’s as normal as possible, we have to invest a good deal of work.
The fact that I can simply charge my smartphone by plugging it into the wall socket, I can check my emails every day, and I can take a nice warm shower whenever I want – even when it’s -40° outside: despite the cramped quarters and being in a hostile environment far from civilisation, it’s all possible, but it doesn’t just happen on its own.
In this sense, you could compare the station to a tiny city: it has its own waterworks, powerplant, heating plant, wastewater treatment plant, laundromat, doctor’s office, chemist’s shop, grocery store, home improvement store, etc. The self-service petrol station is open 24/7, and the same goes for the fitness centre, cinema, kiosk, (currently French) restaurant and hospital. Just like in any other city, vehicles can be taken to the mechanic’s shop for inspections or even major repairs. And all this for a current population of 28!
The total list of infrastructure resources would actually be much longer! But today I’d like to focus on just one aspect, and one that all of us living here take for granted:
the water.
At the Neumayer Station III, just like elsewhere, we need water that complies with the standards for potable water, which we use e.g. for cooking, washing dishes, showering and brushing our teeth. Here, we need water for almost everything we do. Some of the labs need water, and the autoclave used to sterilise the hospital’s medical instruments is thirsty, too. Since the air here in the Antarctic is very dry, we also drink quite a lot. In our mess hall, we have two taps – one with and one without carbonation – where we can get water round the clock. We’ve dubbed this water Atka Quell (“Atka Spring”).
OK, but where does all this water come from?
Russia’s Vostok Station lies at an elevation of nearly 3500 m on the central Antarctic plateau. There is only minimal precipitation (and therefore virtually no new snow); at local temperatures that frequently reach -60° to -80°C, the snow is frozen so hard that it takes chainsaws to remove; the snow shovels we use wouldn’t make a dent. As a result, the station crew have to cut it into blocks with chainsaws, then melt the blocks. We have it much easier!
The snowflakes here near the coast fall as new snow much more frequently than on the Antarctic plateau. Plus, there’s the drift snow, which the typical wind here constantly piles up all around the station, on its windward and leeward sides alike. Because the lid of our snowmelt is even with the ground, we can use the snowcat ploughs to fill it much more easily than the crew at Vostok Station. Since we don’t actually have a spring for fresh water here, the snowmelt normally has to be filled once a day in winter and twice a day in summer.
Video: Filling the snowmelt in the Polar Night at -40° Celsius
When it comes to filling the snowmelt, our technicians have to be sure to use clean snow without any contaminants (e.g. penguin droppings). Otherwise, bacteria could find their way into our drinking water.
In the snowmelt, the snow is warmed and melted by the exhaust heat from the combined heat and power unit alone. In the following steps, the water is enriched with sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride, and UV radiation is used to sterilise it. Aspects like the sodium, potassium and calcium content are checked in an external lab on a regular basis.
Once a month, I take water samples from various parts of the station and conduct a microbiological drinking-water test to assess the water quality. So far, I haven’t found any problems this year.
Now it’s time to try the freshly tested water from the taps in the mess hall (dining hall). I’m happy to say that it tastes great and makes for an excellent thirst-quencher here in the dry Antarctic air!
In addition, once a month I clean and disinfect the water lines and drinking-water taps.
There’s also plenty of water used in the kitchen, for cooking and washing dishes. Before the water from all users goes to our in-station biological wastewater treatment facility, the water from the kitchen first passes through a grease separator and a coarse-material filter, removing any leftovers.
In the next step, a screen breaks down any floating contaminants in the overall water. Next, it is fed into the biological wastewater treatment facility, which uses filters and bacteria to purify it to potable-water quality. Of course, we don’t drink it again afterwards. But in this form (“filtrate water”) it can be used again, e.g. for flushing the toilet.
Completing the water cycle
With the permission of the Germany Environment Agency, residual water from the system is returned to the ice, completing the cycle.
Except for the water analysis in the hospital lab and cleaning the drinking-water lines, our highly capable station engineer Florian is responsible for all aspects of our water system and runs checks on it every day.
You only get out what you put in! Now that our overwintering is over, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Florian; he’s done a very important, and often very unpleasant-smelling, job.
Completing the yearly cycle
Just like the water cycle, the yearly cycle has now come to an end for us overwinterers: on 5 November, the first 27 summer guests arrived on board the polar aeroplane, and once again the station is abuzz with busy scientists and technicians. The nine-member team bound for Germany’s Kohnen Station, at an elevation of nearly 3,000 m, embarked on the nearly 800-km journey with a long caravan of snowcats and one Skidoo on 24 November.
Video: Departing for Kohnen Station
Sending you a beautiful snowflake from Atka Bay and wishing you a Merry Christmas!
Your Peter Jonczyk
