Pollution Abatement At McMurdo Station, Antarctica Available to Purchase

The soil and marine sediment of McMurdo Station, the logistical hub of the U.S. Antarctic Program, are contaminated by both petroleum hydrocarbons and the residual products of waste disposal. These contaminants were released to the environment during earlier years of expeditionary operations. Since 1987, the National Science Foundation has initiated a number of measures in pollution abatement to correct past abuses and to protect the Antarctic environment. These measures include promulgation of waste regulations, development and implementation of a waste management program, cleanup of the station waste dump sites, and development of spill prevention and spill response plans. Introduction McMurdo Station established in 1955 is the largest U.S. research station in Antarctica. This paper briefly reviews the U.S. Antarctic Program, its expeditionary operations and waste disposal practices at McMurdo and the resulting contamination at the station. The paper then describes the measures and investment in pollution abatement which the National Science Foundation has initiated since 1987. The national operators of other Antarctic Programs which have experienced similar conditions of contamination resulting from past practice have also implemented active pollution abatement programs. However, this paper is limited to the U.S. Antarctic Program pollution abatement at McMurdo Station. Antarctica Antarctica is the coldest and the driest continent on earth, and was largely unknown until four decades ago. Approximately 98 percent of the continent is buried under ice, averaging 2000 m thick, which represents 90 percent of the world's ice. The continent encompasses 14 million km ², as large as the United States and Mexico combined. In the winter, the continent is surrounded by a belt of sea ice, 500 to 1500 km wide, making the continent inaccessible to ships, while erratic storm conditions combined with cold temperatures makes air access impractical.