The Antarctic Sun, October 27, 2002

Published during the austral summer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, for the United States Antarctic Program October 27, 2002 Dressed up with no place to go Taste of victory Roald comes in first again, this time as an ice cream flavor By Mark Sabbatini Sun staff What ingredients would you put into an ice cream named after an Antarctic explorer who ate his dogs? Former McMurdo Station worker Dave Weber will get a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream every week for a year for his recipe, selected by the company as the best of nearly 400 Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun entries in a contest to find the best Members of the 109th carry their flight gear through a storm Tuesday at McMurdo Station. The storm ground- Antarctic-themed flavor. His entry, ed all flights to and from McMurdo. Tuesday also happened to be the day the 109th was being photographed “Roald Almonds-en,” consists of for a book “A Day in the Life of the U.S. Military.” chocolate ice cream with toasted almonds, toasted coconut and chocolate chips. Sewage plant coming to McMurdo The flavor’s namesake, Roald Amundsen, made history by being the By Mark Sabbatini the completion of the plant is still exciting. first to reach the South Pole in 1911. Sun staff “It’s been a while coming and it’s good to Rations were often crude and scarce For years McMurdo Station has dis- see it finally happening,” she said. for polar explorers of the era, but charged tens of thousands of gallons of raw The environmental impact of the plant is Amundsen went to great lengths to sewage a day into the sea only a few hun- likely to be significant near the area where ensure he had enough food — includ- dred yards away. That will change this sea- the water is discharged — known as the out- ing the rather controversial act of eat- son when a long-planned sewage treatment fall — and will be studied in-depth by ing the dogs he brought along to help plant opens. researchers. One scientist said it could take haul sleds. The plant is scheduled to go online by decades for the area to return to normal “Well-known for its flavors with mid-January and be fully operational by the because of the extremely cold conditions. name-plays, like Cherry Garcia, end of the austral summer, said Joyce Jatko, Jatko said she doesn’t know if it will take Chunky Monkey and Chubby Hubby, environmental officer for the National that long, but there’s no way to predict if it the Vermont-based company found Science Foundation. She said other projects will be a few years or many years before sig- Dave’s suggestion to be the best,” have had a higher priority as the U.S. nificant changes are seen. wrote Deb Lisman, McMurdo’s hous- Antarctic Program has worked to address About six to eight McMurdo workers ing coordinator last season and the needs with higher environmental risks such built the exterior of the structure during the organizer of the contest, in a statement as replacement of old fuel storage tanks, but See Sewage on page 3 See Icecream on page 13 INSIDE Quote of the Week Icebergs chip Sage advice on away at the licking the Ice “It was out of the refrigerator and into the freezer.” old ice block - Man coming to Antarctica Page 7 Page 4 after working in Alaska www.polar.org/antsun 2 • The Antarctic Sun October 27, 2002 Ross Island Chronicles By Chico I see there’s a new group of Let’s sell them all those jars scientists setting up a camp near of pickled eggs we found in here. Let’s figure out a way to make Robert Scott’s old hut. money off them. Cold, hard facts Blood Pressure Number of people who got blood pressure checks in McMurdo last Good evening gentlemen. We have here What do you think Sunday: 30 the last stock on the continent of polar we are? Dummies? bear testosterone. It’s guaranteed to Everyone knows Approximate number of people make you as virile as satyrs in rut. there are no polar who didn’t get checked: 795 bears in Antarctica Highest blood pressure: 150/100 Lowest blood pressure: 108/60 Median blood pressure: 118/80 Average blood pressure of adult Americans: 120/80 Normal arterial blood pressure for dogs: 90 to 110 And they say global And this is the reason why. marketing doesn’t work. Blood pressure of Weddell seals: 150/110 I’ll take ten Do you take Drop in heart rate when Weddell credit cards? seals dive: 90 percent How Weddell seals maintain blood pressure when they dive: By restricting the blood flow to the heart, lung and brain. Sources: Antarctic Fire Department, Mike Castellini, HealthyPets.com Katabatic Krosswords: All the -ologies The Antarctic Sun is funded by the National ACROSS 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 3 1 1 1 Science Foundation as part of the United 4 Science as applicable to the legal profession 1 1 1 States Antarctic Program. Its 8 The science of the nerve system 1 1 2 4 5 primary audience is U.S. 10 The science of glaciers 6 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Antarctic Program participants, 11 The science of rocks 1 7 1 1 8 15 The science of water their families, and their friends. 6 9 1 1 1 1 1 16 The science of Earth physics NSF reviews and approves 17 The science of life 1 1 1 1 material before publication, but opinions and 18 The science of humans 10 1 1 19 The science of dinosaurs conclusions expressed in the Sun are not 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 9 necessarily those of the Foundation. 1 1 1 1 DOWN 11 Use: Reproduction and distribution are 1 The science of weather 1 1 1 1 1 1 12 1 1 13 encouraged with acknowledgment of source 2 The science of space 1 1 1 1 1 14 and author. 3 The science of organisms and their environment 13 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Senior Editor: Kristan Hutchison 5 The science of matter and energy 6 The science of oceans 15 Editors: Melanie Conner 7 The science of animals. 1 1 1 1 1 1 Mark Sabbatini 9 The science of microscopic life 1 1 1 16 Copy Editor: Liz Connell 12 The science of fish Publisher: Valerie Carroll, 13 The science of chemicals and substances 17 1 1 1 Communications manager,RPSC 14 The science of the functions and activities of life 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 18 Contributions are welcome. Contact the Solution on page 13 Sun at [email protected]. In McMurdo, visit 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 our office in Building 155 or dial 2407. 19 Web address: www.polar.org/antsun Squares too small? No pencil to erase your mistakes? Try our interactive online puzzle at www.polar.org/antsun October 27, 2002 The Antarctic Sun • 3 Sewage From page 1 polar winter after the materials for the plant — weighing as much as 2 million pounds — arrived in pieces on the Green Wave cargo vessel last February, said Ric Morris, director of Facilities, Engineering, Maintenance and Construction for Raytheon Polar Services Co. “You can image during the dark and the cold it’s not easy,” he said. On a similar construction project the year before workers could only be outside 30 minutes at a time and “when it’s windy, all of the roof panels and side panels, you can’t put them up.” About 30 people are working on the guts of the plant this summer, preparing three 12-by-12-by-75-foot storage tanks and rerouting sewage pipes to go through the plant, said Dale Jacobs, senior construction coordinator at McMurdo. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun “It’s a stationwide project,” he said. Ten-inch pipes will carry up to 121,000 gallons of wastewater a day into the new treatment Morris said the 170-foot-by-140-foot plant when it starts working in January. plant costs about $6 million and will be able to treat up to 121,000 gallons of bones out of the system.” of pollutants in the area. sewage a day. It can be expanded to five The plant, when finished, is designed to Organisms that live in this region of the tanks able to process 160,000 gallons if be operated by a single person who can marine environment were significantly necessary. monitor all its operations, Jacobs said. It is affected by the sewage outfall, according The facility is similar to a standard also designed to handle large fluctuations to previous research. These organisms, municipal treatment plant, but designed to in population, since there are fewer than which can include invertebrates and bot- treat the higher concentration of waste that 200 people at McMurdo during the winter tom-feeding fish, are often important recy- results from McMurdo’s efforts to conserve and more than 1,000 at times during the clers of nutrients otherwise trapped in sed- water, Jatko said. That means a larger hold- summer. iments. ing time so the bacteria that break down the “You have bacteria living and dying in Estimates are the sewage outfall left a sewage have a longer time to work. pile 120 feet long and 50 feet wide in the “I had a professor that used to call it sound, which turned white from a bacteri- bugs,” she said, referring to the bacteria “This is the right thing to um that took eight years to digest four that are part of a person’s normal digestive do, that we minimize our months’ worth of sewage.

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