Work!

The reason we're on Macquarie Island is to begin remediating petroleum-contaminated soil.  As in every other place where people have handled fuel, there have been some spills on Macquarie Island.  Soil around the fuel farm, which stores the Island's supply of Special Antarctic Blend (a light deisel) is contaminated.

The tanks are now contained in a substantial enclosure, but historic spills have contaminated the soil around the fuel farm.

The Main Power House, which houses the generator that supplies power to the station, is also the site of spills.

The soil on the side of the Main Power House is in a little wetland.  This poses particular remediation challanges because aerobic respiration is limited by lack of oxygen here.  Our basic approach to remediating Macquarie soils is to make the environment as favorable as possible for soil microbes that oxidize petroleum to carbon dioxide.  Limiting factors are generally lack of nitrogen and/or oxygen.

Last year's crew installed a number of sampling ports (thanks, Andrew et al!).  Here's #5.

Under the cover are either a tube sunk into the soil that is slotted at the bottom to allow water to enter (and which we can later collect), or

sampling ports to allow water to be withdrawn, oxygen sensors, and temperature sensors.

We're now collecting baseline data prior to starting remediation activities.