The winters in Antarctica can be harsh, and recently we’ve seen a few powerful storms move through the town. During the most recent storm the town faced an unfortunate power outage. Normally, a power outage isn’t a serious event, but in Antarctica, where we rely so heavily on heating systems, water purification, and other electrical systems, power outages can be dangerous. Fortunately, the linemen were able to fix the power lines and get electricity flowing back through most of the town, but they weren’t able to get the seawater intake pumps working again.
McMurdo relies on desalinating seawater to get its freshwater. The seawater intake pumps went down only an hour after a routine inspection/cleaning of one of the freshwater tanks, in which the water had to be drained. This meant that the station had a decreased store of freshwater and no way to get more. Of course, there are contingency plans in place, so when they weren’t able to get main power back to the seawater pumps they brought in emergency generators to power the pumps. However, these didn’t supply nearly as much power as the main station generators, so the water intake was greatly decreased.
The station immediately had an all hands meeting in which we were told to ration our water usage. There are different levels of water rationing and we were at the most basic level, which meant reducing our showers to only two minute showers, twice a week. Certain departments that get particularly dirty were allowed two minute showers once a day, but for most of us it was twice a week. Thankfully, they were able to get power back to the seawater intake pumps and remove the water restrictions earlier today, before the water rationing had to increase in strictness.
While McMurdo has most comforts you could want (besides fresh fruits and vegetables in the winters), experiencing the water rationing was a good reminder that we’re still living in an extreme climate, far from home.
