How
the heck do we get water in a desert? Well that's what I went to find out.
Last
week I attended the Ross Island Yacht Club meeting and happened to sit down
next to a guy that works at the Water Plant, so I set up a tour! I told a few
friends and 7 of us ended up going. So we walked down the hill to the water/
power plant building. It turns out that the Blue Ribbon Panel that is here on
station was touring the plant too. So we waited.
When
it was our turn we had Paul(who I estimate is in his mid 60s, maybe more) show
us around the plant and explain what did what.
The
process is basically take water from the Ross Sea, heat it from 28 degrees to
38 degrees, remove the salt, filter it, treat it with chemicals, store it and
use it! You may be wondering about the temperature. Salt water freezes at lower
temps than fresh. It's not special Antarctic water or anything!
So
we walked around and saw all the pumps and filters and holding tanks and felt
the pipes to get an idea for how cold the water is. It was pretty loud so I
didn't hear everything but I got the gist of it all.
An
interesting stat: we use about 60,000 gallons per day on an average summer day.
There are about 1,100 people on station. We have experiments going on, laundry
to be washed, food to be cooked and cleaned up after, smelly hard workers...
Lots of water used.
Neat Place... now what to tour next?Pictures...
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