11/13/19
It's been a busy week for environmental so far. We drove a snow cat (pisten bully) out for an hour and a half on the sea ice to check out the seal population dynamics researchers. They're from Montana State Univ and are friends of mine, so it's fun to visit them to check on their camp. Also its not bad getting to walk up close to the seal pups. But mostly I LOVE driving the snow cats. Laura and Marci don't, so I get to be the driver whenever we go out on the sea ice.
Today we visited the "Penguin Ranch" sea ice location where the group is studying emperor penguin dive physiology, so they have 5 penguins corralled inside a pen with a hole to the sea ice so that they can monitor various aspects of penguin physiology. Emperor penguins are so beautiful and interesting to watch. Today we also helped with a big 50 gallon spill of glycol that poured out of the power plant.
11/14/19
Today was the MCI (Mass Casualty Incident) drill. The simulation was a plane crash at the airfield. Normally patients would be transported from the airfield to the hospital via helicopter, but the weather was terrible, so they called the SAR team out to get get patients and do patient care in our Hagglunds (snow cats). At the last minute when we arrived, the weather cleared enough to send helicopters, so we ended up having to not transport patients, but it was fun to cruise at top speed through the snow in our Hagglunds. A drive to the airfield by snowcat from town is about 25ish minutes. In a helicopter it's about 5 minutes.
11/16/19
Yesterday, Marci and I flew out to Lake Bonney in the Dry Valleys to do a field camp review. The camp hasn't been occupied for about a week, so we were the only ones there in the beautiful and quiet camp at the foot of mountains with glaciers streaming all around and along the shores of a frozen lake. We always test the water at each camp we go to, but not this one b/c all the water in the Jamesway tent was frozen
Yesterday there was a major failure at the power plant that caused frequent power outages. It's caused a mess around town and all non-essential electronics have been requested to be turned off. They shut down the stations TV and movies so that no one could watch TV. They also closed all the bars and Hut 10. Also they unplugged all the washers and dryers. With the power outages the fire detection and suppression computer failed, and so we are having to do hourly checks of buildings for fire safety. This means the poor RAs had to be up every hour last night for all the dorms. Power conservation is key, especially considering we get our water via reverse osmosis (RO) by taking the salt out of the sea water, so it's important to have the power
During the power outages, the RO system was not able to function, so we got pretty low on water. Thus the community has been put on major water restrictions. We are no longer using dishes at the galley b/c of the water they require to clean, so we're using paper plates, paper bowls, and paper cups.
Tonight was a fun-filled and busy night for us. After our workout and dinner, we went to the BFC. BFC stands for Berg Field Center (though affectionately known as building full of chicks since mostly women seem to work there). Berg was a young scientist here that died in a a helicopter crash here 50 years ago. So the BFC held a party in his remembrance. The BFC is one of the coolest work centers and they did a really good job of decorating the place up. They had hors d'oeuvres of cheese, crackers, and smoked scallops, and were also serving free wine and beer. Bija and Robyn, the heads of the BFC gave a history of the Berg, we did a toast, people who had wintered at the BFC told ghost stories of how Berg haunts it, and then there was live music.
After the live music and before the dance party at the BFC started, Elisha and I headed instead to the MEC for the Slow Song Saturday dance. This is one of my very favorite parties at McM. It's a small group, and they play mostly 80's power ballads. Everyone sings out loud, and there are fake microphones that they pass around to sing into if you wish. During certain, powerful or famous songs, everyone links arms in a circle and sways. I love it!
Sunday was freezing weather (-4F ambient with -35F windchill), so we mostly stayed in and watched football and movies.
11/18
The station ran out of paper plates, so at breakfast, we only had bowls. Also there were no paper mugs suitable for hot beverages. I have put in a few photos of the funny signs at the galley today
A note from the manager about water restrictions
A note from the manager to leads:
It's been a busy week for environmental so far. We drove a snow cat (pisten bully) out for an hour and a half on the sea ice to check out the seal population dynamics researchers. They're from Montana State Univ and are friends of mine, so it's fun to visit them to check on their camp. Also its not bad getting to walk up close to the seal pups. But mostly I LOVE driving the snow cats. Laura and Marci don't, so I get to be the driver whenever we go out on the sea ice.
Today we visited the "Penguin Ranch" sea ice location where the group is studying emperor penguin dive physiology, so they have 5 penguins corralled inside a pen with a hole to the sea ice so that they can monitor various aspects of penguin physiology. Emperor penguins are so beautiful and interesting to watch. Today we also helped with a big 50 gallon spill of glycol that poured out of the power plant.
11/14/19
Today was the MCI (Mass Casualty Incident) drill. The simulation was a plane crash at the airfield. Normally patients would be transported from the airfield to the hospital via helicopter, but the weather was terrible, so they called the SAR team out to get get patients and do patient care in our Hagglunds (snow cats). At the last minute when we arrived, the weather cleared enough to send helicopters, so we ended up having to not transport patients, but it was fun to cruise at top speed through the snow in our Hagglunds. A drive to the airfield by snowcat from town is about 25ish minutes. In a helicopter it's about 5 minutes.
11/16/19
Yesterday, Marci and I flew out to Lake Bonney in the Dry Valleys to do a field camp review. The camp hasn't been occupied for about a week, so we were the only ones there in the beautiful and quiet camp at the foot of mountains with glaciers streaming all around and along the shores of a frozen lake. We always test the water at each camp we go to, but not this one b/c all the water in the Jamesway tent was frozen
Yesterday there was a major failure at the power plant that caused frequent power outages. It's caused a mess around town and all non-essential electronics have been requested to be turned off. They shut down the stations TV and movies so that no one could watch TV. They also closed all the bars and Hut 10. Also they unplugged all the washers and dryers. With the power outages the fire detection and suppression computer failed, and so we are having to do hourly checks of buildings for fire safety. This means the poor RAs had to be up every hour last night for all the dorms. Power conservation is key, especially considering we get our water via reverse osmosis (RO) by taking the salt out of the sea water, so it's important to have the power
During the power outages, the RO system was not able to function, so we got pretty low on water. Thus the community has been put on major water restrictions. We are no longer using dishes at the galley b/c of the water they require to clean, so we're using paper plates, paper bowls, and paper cups.
Tonight was a fun-filled and busy night for us. After our workout and dinner, we went to the BFC. BFC stands for Berg Field Center (though affectionately known as building full of chicks since mostly women seem to work there). Berg was a young scientist here that died in a a helicopter crash here 50 years ago. So the BFC held a party in his remembrance. The BFC is one of the coolest work centers and they did a really good job of decorating the place up. They had hors d'oeuvres of cheese, crackers, and smoked scallops, and were also serving free wine and beer. Bija and Robyn, the heads of the BFC gave a history of the Berg, we did a toast, people who had wintered at the BFC told ghost stories of how Berg haunts it, and then there was live music.
After the live music and before the dance party at the BFC started, Elisha and I headed instead to the MEC for the Slow Song Saturday dance. This is one of my very favorite parties at McM. It's a small group, and they play mostly 80's power ballads. Everyone sings out loud, and there are fake microphones that they pass around to sing into if you wish. During certain, powerful or famous songs, everyone links arms in a circle and sways. I love it!
Sunday was freezing weather (-4F ambient with -35F windchill), so we mostly stayed in and watched football and movies.
11/18
The station ran out of paper plates, so at breakfast, we only had bowls. Also there were no paper mugs suitable for hot beverages. I have put in a few photos of the funny signs at the galley today
A note from the manager about water restrictions
Community,
Our power production has stabilized, but during the power outages our water production ceased and our current inventories require us to adopt Water Stage Orange restrictions (FMC-SOP-1023). We are currently producing potable water, and at current production and consumption rates we expect to be able to lift water restrictions in approximately 48 hours.
Water Stage Orange restrictions:
· No laundry. If there is an active health or hygiene risk, contact the Lodging team.
· Two two-minute showers per week for all McMurdo residents.
· Dining Facility meals are served on paper plates.
· Limit industrial use of fresh water.
· No mopping of floors apart from Medical and Dining Facility
***Please note there are no restrictions on water consumption or hand washing—continue to take care of your health and the community’s health.
Additionally:
· Report any observed or suspected water leaks or running toilets to Dispatch at x42555.
· Fire watches remain in effect for occupied buildings. We are actively troubleshooting the monitoring system.
· All recreational facilities are open and accessible.
· Off-station recreational travel is permitted.
· Appliances and devices can be plugged in and used. As always, keep conservation in mind.
Thank you for your patience and understanding,
Pedro
A note from the manager to leads:
In a few minutes a message will go out to the entire community addressing our move into Water Stage Orange (page 6 on the attached SOP)
Please ensure your teams understand the importance of complying with these restrictions. Currently we are producing more water than we are consuming, but it will likely be 48 hours before our inventories have recovered enough to lift restrictions. We will evaluate the Utilities data mid-day on Monday.)
· Currently our power production is stable.
· Fire watches remain in effect for occupied buildings. We are actively working to restore our alarm monitoring system.
· All recreational facilities are open and accessible, and off-station recreational travel is allowed.
· Alert Dispatch at x42555 if you see or hear a water leak or running toilet.
Thanks for your assistance.
Be well,
Pedro
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| when the coffee paper cups ran out, someone had the brilliant idea to use bowls. haha! |
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| cleaning up a spill on the ice road |
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| spill response vehicle |
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| spill response team |
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| I love driving pisten bullies! |
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| bow tie tuesday and driving a PB |
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| one of B-009's pups |
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| team enviro getting ready to visit the penguin ranch |
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