Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 11/12/2009 - 08:11

Hello, We are a 5th grade class in Texas conducting experiments on the affects that sunflowers can have on water quality. We were having a demo/discussion in class about the amount of potable water in the world and Antartica came up. I remember being told that you collect your water from the ocean and use a desalination system. Amongst our discussion a couple of students wanted to know how you get the electricity to power the system and the station. We are all in anticipation for this answer. Thank you. Coder Elementary, 5th grade science lab.

Michele Cross

Hey guys! Thanks for checking us out!! McMurdo is powered by very large diesel generators. The desalination plant is a reverse osmosis system and creates pure water; this process takes everything out--including the good stuff for our bodies.  So, they must put minerals back in the drinking water so as not to harm us or the infrastructure here.
 Until recently, all of the generators were in one building, and the desalination plant was in another building. It is no longer like that because if there was a major disaster  in the building that provides us with electricity, we'd have nothing. Potentially catastrophic down here.
 As a result, they have split the facilities up and placed both in 2 buildings. That way if we lose one building, we'll still have generators and a way to process the sea water.
 Hope that helps!!
Mrs. Cross