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The McMurdo Wastewater Treatment Plant
- walrus01 4y agoI, for one, am glad that you can't smell things through high resolution photographs on the Internet.
- Amorymeltzer 4y agoYears and years ago, I went on a tour of the Paris Sewer (museum). It was billed as a cool and interesting thing to visit, and while there was a lot of neat stuff to see and learn, we rushed through it as fast as possible to get out of the smell. Not sure what we expected.
- shrx 4y agoIt wasn't so bad when I was there, it was quite an interesting experience.
- elihu 4y agoWhen I was there in 2000 it definitely had a smell, but it wasn't terrible. Some years later I got around to reading Les Miserables, and it goes off at one point on a long digression about the construction and history of the Paris sewers, which was really interesting.
- AceJohnny2 4y agoFrom the article: > It feels and smells pleasant, like a slightly humid, earthy summer day. I'm surprised, considering the open wastewater.
- jseutter 4y agoIn my city they use organisms to process wastewater and the smell is quite remarkable. There is one section right at the beginning that smells like sewage, but the rest of the processing plant smells like freshly turned dirt in your garden, albeit stronger. Many years ago before they modified the process the smell was horrible.
- emmelaich 4y agoI worked in a wastewater plant for a while. The smell in the secondary tanks - aeration - is surprisingly inoffensive. The smell for the tertiary tanks can be even a little sweet smelling. In the digestion tanks it's pretty much odorless. It depends on the input of course. I presume it's mostly food scraps and human waste. Nothing industrial. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_liquor_suspended_solids https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_liquor_suspended_solids
- NegativeLatency 4y agoIt's fun thinking about McMurdo as it relates to what long term habitation would be like on some place like the Moon or Mars (except this is like easy easy mode). The waste there would actually be super valuable for growing food in.
- nullc 4y agoSludge has been used as fertilizer... though this is also why there are some huge areas contaminated with PFAs-- they got dumped down drains and ended up in sludge sold off as fertilizer.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- AceJohnny2 4y agoPFAs?
- arcanemachiner 4y agohttps://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm
- Amorymeltzer 4y agoPer- and polyfluoroalkyl substances: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_substances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Per-_and_polyfluoroalkyl_subst... See also: https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained https://www.epa.gov/pfas/pfas-explained and https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm https://www.niehs.nih.gov/health/topics/agents/pfc/index.cfm tl;dr: Long-lasting, persistent, linked to negative health outcomes, under (increasing?) regulatory scrutiny e.g. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-substances-pfas https://www.mass.gov/info-details/per-and-polyfluoroalkyl-su...
- jseutter 4y agoA groups of substances that are useful to give plastics certain qualities. They are currently unregulated, and, due to their small size, found pretty much everywhere, including in our bloodstream. Several of them are "forever" substances that will take a very long time to break down. It's one of the reasons off-gridders are recommending not to drink unfiltered rainwater, even in climates where it was traditionally safe, because PFAS are found in dust. Dust forms the basis for raindrops. Scientists and the general public are starting to become concerned about these substances, and at least one preliminary study indicates they might interfere in the body's ability to react correctly to vaccines. More studies are needed, and given the potential for long-term effects, the studies might take a long time.
- ddoolin 4y agoIt's not mentioned anywhere in the post, but McMurdo Station is in Antarctica. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_Station
- Amorymeltzer 4y agoAlso of note: the whole blog (which is fun!) is one person's blog while in Antarctica.
- bumby 4y agoIf you zoom in on the control system, you can see it says Antarctic Program
- lawrenceyan 4y agoMarket the processed waste as Antarctic scientist poop fertilizer, and I guarantee you could mark up prices by 10x.
- teruakohatu 4y agoThat was very interesting. I did some Googling and my country ships back ~5.5 tons of '20% dry sludge' per year back to New Zealand from Scott Base. It looks like McMurdo is drying out the sludge more. My back of the envolope calculations based on an old article [1] are that McMurdo could be shipping as much as 50-80 tons of dried sludge back to the USA each year [1] https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/frozen-wastes/ https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/frozen-wastes/
- pkaye 4y agoPBS Terra had an tour of this waste water processing plant along with other episodes on how it is to live at the McMurdo station. An interesting fact is food doesn't get spoiled there so you can keep it around for a long time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTaVvSe03TQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTaVvSe03TQ
- AceJohnny2 4y agoOfftopic, but for how interesting, and likely expensive, that series was, I'm surprised by its relatively low view count. That video didn't even break a million! Compare that with, oh, this random 3Blue1Brown video [1] that has 1.5M views. Unfortunately, I suspect it is proof that YouTube is not the place for high production value documentaries. [1] https://youtu.be/VYQVlVoWoPY https://youtu.be/VYQVlVoWoPY
- pkaye 4y agoI think their algorithms make it hard to discover this stuff. Another good set of documentaries is the "JPL and the Space Age" series by the NASA JPL channel. Also their Von Karman lectures. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTiv_XWHnOZqFnWQs393RhIMQoeCnwjhV https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTiv_XWHnOZqFnWQs393R... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTiv_XWHnOZr-0Wz9ObrMlwSpb2e2CpTh https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTiv_XWHnOZr-0Wz9ObrM...
- lupire 4y agoMaybe more people are about about mathematical paradoxes than Antarctica poop?
- thatguy0900 4y agoI wonder what the ad payment rate is to be shown on TV vs YouTube.
- Red_Leaves_Flyy 4y agoIf the algorithm promoted videos like that I’d actually use YouTube. I honestly don’t understand how anyone uses YouTube regularly.
- michaericalribo 4y agoThis gave me fond flashbacks to the book Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. There's lots of details about this type of infrastructure necessary to support human habitation, to say nothing of kickstarting terraforming. Worth a read if you haven't already.
- pimlottc 4y agoThis is the coolest domain name I’ve seen in a long time.
- iamtedd 4y agoDammit, I see what you did there.
- legitster 4y agoIt's crazy how advanced this stuff is. It's easy to wonder why most of the world struggles with clean water until you realize every township in the Western world basically has the equivalent of world class manufacturing floor run by a handful of elite microbiologists.
- Scubabear68 4y agoLots of us out in the country are on septic systems and wells.
- xxpor 4y agoNew septic systems are basically mini treatment plants. The amount of equipment it needs are pretty wild. They also (at least in NJ) need twice yearly inspections by professionals.
- Dan_- 4y agoThis is how it is where I live. My “septic” is a self-contained wastewater treatment plant that must be inspected semi-annually and actively maintained. The effluent is technically potable. It uses about 25% of my total electrical consumption.
- Scubabear68 4y agoOur septic is gravity fed on a small hill. It is very basic, and we do not need multiple inspections per year. Are you sure these aren’t County required inspections? I live in Hunterdon County and never heard of it. That said I know it depends on your land conditions and geography.
- thedougd 4y agoThey’re referring to a level IV or V system. They’re used when the ground doesn’t perc well.
- ciscoriordan 4y agoIf you like this, I recommend "Big Dead Place" (https://www.amazon.com/Big-Dead-Place-Menacing-Antarctica/dp/1536617512 https://www.amazon.com/Big-Dead-Place-Menacing-Antarctica/dp...) by Nicholas Johnson, a garbageman at McMurdo.
- thinkingemote 4y agoVery much recommended! It was going to be made into a TV show apparently. I first came across Johnson's work in his Shark Fear: Shark Awareness, which is more of a zine mocking fear mongering post 9/11, and about those deadly deadly sharks. He committed suicide almost 10 years ago.
- loeg 4y ago> This squeezes out any remaining water, so the resulting Sludge is as light as possible. > Here’s the final solid product, a nutrient-rich soil-like material. This is sent back to the United States. Why send it back?
- waster 4y agoIf I'm not mistaken, protection of delicate environment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Environmental_Protection_to_the_Antarctic_Treaty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protocol_on_Environmental_Prot...
- qwertox 4y agoHonest question: Can you grow anything out there? I guess you could do indoor farming, but maybe it's more than enough "compost" they're producing there? It would be interesting to know if an analysis of it (when in the US) could tell some things about how the station is doing. https://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm https://www.usap.gov/videoclipsandmaps/mcmwebcam.cfm
- randombits0 4y agoTest the polar poop? Preposterous!
- eigenhombre 4y agoNot sure about McMurdo, but South Pole Station has a greenhouse, which is an awfully nice place to stick your head into now and again if you're doing any amount of time there. They grow tomatoes and lettuce, among other things, that sometimes make their way into salads for folks on-station. I've been several times to the Pole for work (years ago), and going into the greenhouse and smelling tomato plants after days on end of smelling nothing but people, galley food, cleaning products, and fuel exhaust, is a pleasant memory. They do not (or at least did not) use human sewage for fertilizer there -- unlike at McMurdo, human waste at Pole does not get shipped off station.
- bacon_waffle 4y ago
- superkuh 4y agoDo the website operators think they're being funny by loading in all the photographs upside-down?
- ars 4y agoThat's because you're probably in America, it works fine when viewed in Australia.
- neurostimulant 4y agoWhat browser did you use? The images do have 180 degrees exif rotation flag if you check the exif metadata. Maybe your browser doesn't respect the flag?
- lob_it 4y agoI worked in an envronmental lab as a teenager and am still in awe of what percentage of toilet paper was in treated sewage water. In 2022, the fine cellulose that could be holding onto finer particles of..... stuff, pale in comparison to microbeads that make it through multiple stages of sewage treatment. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32095965/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32095965/ The microbeads breakdown even further, so this only means that the treated sewage may contain more contaminates (not to mention PFAS) than anyone cares to admit. https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_contamination/ https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_contamination/ New construction in the 21st century at least has the knowledge of the additional need for filtering on premises, regardless of source (municipal, desalination, rain water, well water, etc). Very entusiastic blog as well. Author writes with very bright eyed and bushy-tailed enthusiasm. The more you know "bling, bling, bling" :)
- tomcam 4y agoTo me what with things like this and microplastics in the water it’s inevitable that we’ll end up distilling all our water
- lob_it 4y agoNo chicken little on this.. Its just an FYI If you raised a family on distilled water and filtered out the contaminents, I'm sure other than high insurance rates in healthcare pools, you'll be fine :) Edit: How could someone not like this comment and ruin my perfect karma :0 /s? There has been funk in the water for decades. If it has already caused birth defects, undiagnosed ailments or anything, it was already a known fact.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- Scoundreller 4y agoI appreciated their other article: where OP explains how there are two segments of the antarctic research station: an American one, and an NZ one. Their bank loses their mind when their bank card is physically used in America and then in NZ 30 minutes later and OP has to clear up how that isn't impossible. > Being in Antarctica is weird, because you can travel back and forth between the “United States” (McMurdo) and “New Zealand” (Scott Base) in less than 30 minutes. > Credit card companies have a hard time with this. https://brr.fyi/posts/credit-card-shenanigans https://brr.fyi/posts/credit-card-shenanigans Edge cases mang!
- adrianmonk 4y agoLow-tech solution: get two credit cards, use different cards for different locations. Draw an eagle on one and a kiwi on the other so it's easy to keep them straight.
- rendaw 4y agoI'm impressed it's the bank having a hard time and not their customers!
- rexarex 4y agoThey don’t take credit card at McMurdo, it’s cash only. There are two Wells Fargo ATMs in the main building. Cash that is spent on station gets recycled back into the ATMs. The New Zealand base does take card however.
- c_o_n_v_e_x 4y agoThe interior of the building that houses the tanks does not appear to be explosion protected. Not a waste water process expert but I thought it's somewhat normal to have hydrogen sulfide and other flammable gases be generated by the bacteria breaking down the sludge.
- sbierwagen 4y agoI was wondering about the "Activated Sludge Troubleshooting Chart", which turns out not to be some McMurdo internal documentation, but a commercial product sold as a poster... for US$94.95! https://www.tetratech.com/en/markets/one-water/solutions/wastewater/wastewater-operations-posters/activated-sludge-troubleshooting-chart-2nd-edition https://www.tetratech.com/en/markets/one-water/solutions/was...
- MichaelZuo 4y agoReally cool facility. Thanks for posting.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- rgovostes 4y agoInteresting that the status dashboard had to be redacted, not only the URL but the data itself: https://brr.fyi/media/wastewater-plant/status-dashboard.jpg https://brr.fyi/media/wastewater-plant/status-dashboard.jpg I was watching a documentary on cruise ships the other day where I noticed they similarly blurred out a screen in the ship’s wastewater processing room. Why is this information sensitive?
- blaser-waffle 4y agofor the ships I'd imagine it's for obfuscating how much they're dumping for environmental regulation reasons. they leak shit and oil everywhere they go, basically. probably true for mcmurdo, but it could also be that any/all real data about the place is banned for outside use. i wouldn't be surprised if you could predict number of people and other details by looking at sewage flows.