Introduction

In 2001 the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat extended an invitation to the Australian Antarctic Division for one of its officers to participate in the SWEDARP 2001/02 expedition to Dronning Maud Land. The purpose of this was to facilitate the exchange of information between the two Antarctic programs, particularly in regard to environmental management practices. Some of the key findings follow.

Power generation

Electricity for Wasa station was provided by solar panels mounted on the walls of the station and stored in 80 1.2 V nickel cadmium batteries located underneath the building. This provided 12, 24 and 220 V power to the station through the use of a power inverter.

A total of 12 m² of solar panels (48 individual units) are installed and these produced sufficient electricity to operate the station during the seven weeks it was occupied. There was only one period, of approximately 12 hours, when the system was unable to provide sufficient electricity for the whole station. This occurred following three days of blizzard conditions. During this period use of the electrical system was curtailed to conserve battery power. The station also has two diesel generators and two LPG generators as a backup to the solar system. These were not used during the 2001/02 expedition.

The use of solar panels to provide electricity has many benefits for the Antarctic environment, the most obvious being that it does not require the burning of fossil fuels and the consequent production of potentially harmful emissions. There is also no opportunity for accidental fuel spills to occur and it produces minimal long-term cumulative impacts. Although such systems obviously cannot be used in Antarctica during the winter period, they can be used in conjunction with other power generation systems, such as wind turbines and small diesel or LPG generators, to significantly reduce the use of fossil fuels.

Energy conservation

Wasa station has a range of energy conservation measures incorporated into the main station building. These provide an extremely energy efficient building that is both practical and comfortable to live in. The walls, floor and ceiling are well insulated with 30–50 cm of rock wool insulation. The building is constructed of box plywood sections with an external cladding of timber vertical boards. There are windows on the northern, eastern and western walls to maximum heat gain from the summer sun. All windows are triple glazed and can be opened in either a top opening awning or side openingfashion to provide ventilation and cooling of the building, even in blizzard conditions.

A heat exchange system continuously circulates heat from one part of the building to the other. This allows heat generated from cooking meals, from using the shower or sauna and the heat generated by the occupants to be used to keep the whole house at an even temperature. This system was so effective that no heaters were required to heat the station apart from three days when the station was first occupied and for one day at the end of a three day blizzard.

The net effect of these energy conservation measures is that the station is highly energy efficient. It is estimated that the total energy cost in fossil fuels for the operation of the station over the seven weeks that it was operationalwas only 300 kg of LPG and 28 litres of petrol.

Recycling

All wastes generated on the station are sorted and then stored in used 200 litre drums for back-loading and subsequent disposal or recycling in South Africa. The 200 litre drums had half of their lids opened to provide a flap which could be closed to stop the waste blowing out of the containers in windy conditions.

Wastes were sorted into organics, combustibles, glass, metals, batteries, hazardous waste and waste oil. Due to the bulky nature of some of the combustible waste it was difficult at times to fit it into the 200 litre drums. One possible solution would be to compact the material with a press prior to containment.

Water conservation and use

Water consumption at Wasa station averaged out at only 40 litres a person per day over the summer period. A range of water saving equipment has been installed in the station including water saving taps at all wash sinks, two standard thermostatic showers with water saving showerheads, a dishwasher machine with low water consumption and a washing machine with low water consumption (Haugum, 1991).

Fresh water supplies were obtained from a melt ice area approximately 1.5 km from the station. A small hole was drilled into the ice at the start of the expedition and water pumped from it with a small electrical pump. The water was transported back to the station, either in 6 x 50 litre urns (300 litres total) transported by snowmobiles, or in tanks transported by tracked over-snow vehicle (with a total capacity of 1 600 litres). The water was then pumped into a holding tank located inside the main station building from which it was pumped via a small electric motor to various outlets within the building.

This system for collecting water requires relatively little energy (less than 1 litre of petrol for 300 litres of water) and has no discernable environmental impact on the site from which the water is taken. It is relatively labour intensive, depending on how the water is collected. Two people are required when the water is collected with snowmobiles, one person when collecting with a bandwagon. However, the collection of potable water in Antarctica is often a difficult, energy expensive process and the low environmental impact of this method has much to recommend it.

Sewerage and waste water treatment

The sewerage system consists of a simple long drop into a 200 litre fuel drum that has had its lid removed. Both faeces and urine are collected in the drum. When the drum is full the drum lid is placed loosely on top and the drum left in Antarctica for two seasons to allow freeze-drying and evaporation of the liquids. The residue is normally shipped to South Africa for disposal. This system has many environmental benefits. It does not require the discharge of sewerage effluents into the local environment, the only discharge being water, which evaporates slowly into the atmosphere over a relatively long period of time. This is unlikely to have any adverse impact on the local environment. Just as importantly it does not require the establishment of a large infrastructure, with the consequent long-term cumulative impacts associated with this. Energy costs associated with the processing of the wastes are minimal.

The eleven members of the 2001/02 expedition produced a total of 5 drums of human waste over a period of two months. Each drum was approximately 2/3 full.

Grey water from showers, the laundry and kitchen is transported via a 100-metre long insulated and heated pipe to an ice covered area below the station where it drains into the surrounding ice. The pipe leaked in a number of places, the first leak being at the joint where it left the station and a second approximately half way down the pipe. As a result areas of frozen grey water were observed in the immediate vicinity of the station. Soil samples were taken of these areas during the summer season as part of the contamination study being undertaken by SWEDARP.

The issue of grey water discharge at inland stations is currently under review by the Committee for Environmental Protection and studies such as those carried out/proposed by the Swedish and Finnish programs should be very useful in addressing this issue.

Concluding remarks

The design of the Wasa station has incorporated a wide range of technologies, the use of which results in it having a very low impact on the Antarctic environment. Importantly, the choice and design of the buildings will also minimise any long-term environmental impact, the construction of the foundations being such that they can be easily removed, leaving little evidence of their having been installed.
These design features have been complemented with operating procedures that similarly aim to minimise negative impacts on the environment. Adoption of these measures has resulted in a highly efficient and comfortable  Antarctic station that could well be used as a model for other stations being built in Antarctica.