Loading snow for fresh water
Bruce Fitch - 1974-75 - Antarcticans Database Project more

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Loading snow for fresh water

The D-5 Cat loading snow into the fresh water hopper. The hopper used generator heat to melt snow for all of the station’s fresh water needs. Since water was a conserved resource, winter overs took a shower only once a week. Surprisingly, there were no problems with body odor due to the intense cold. All of the water pipes both hot and cold were wrapped in heat tape to prevent freezing. When the station first opened, it took a week or so to get the settings just right. Until then, the cold water was very hot and the hot water was scalding. After winter, the new crew came in and took over operations. They were surprised we wasted time a fuel going far afield to collect snow to load the hopper when snow was readily available close by. After suffering diesel flavored water for a week, the new crew went far afield out of range of the generator exhaust plumes to collect snow.