2001-02 Photos - New Water Well

The new rodwell building, shipped in a couple of modular sections and hastily assembled.

A closeup of the double-walled fuel tank.

A side view showing the 2 modular sections--this view with a glimpse of the station gives you some idea of the location and orientation.

The heart of the system--2 boilers, one operating and one on standby. These heat a glycol-water mixture...(BS)

...circulated by one of these pumps through the heat exchanger (lower right next to door) to heat the potable water.

This view through the building shows some of the electrical panels, the boilers are at right and the next step, the hose reel, is in the background.

The hose reel. The bottom reel holds the supply and return hoses. There is a submersible pump in the well which brings the water up; much of the water from the heat exchangers is recirculated back down in the well to maintain its heat and grow the bulb to generate more water. On top of the hose reel is the reel of support cable which supports the hoses and submersible pump.

The hoses are strung across to the other end of the room of the room, next to a rack of tie-wraps used to hold the hoses, winch cable and submersible pump power cable together (BS).

On the other side of the room, here are the two hoses going through the floor down into the well. The hose reels manually lower the hoses and pumps slowly down into the well as the bulb grows and the water level drops. In an old well the level may be 400-500 feet below the surface.

On the back side of the electrical panels is this manifold where the water leaves the building for the new power plant. The return water passes through another heat exchanger in the power plant before it comes back here and is recirculated back down the hole (another BS photo from winter 2005).

Most of these photos were taken in 2003-04 by Ralph DeStefano, the then Title II inspector. I took the ones marked (BS) during my 2005 winter. The plans were to duplicate this module for the new rodwell, which was drilled in 2006-07 to be put in service the following summer. Which didn't happen...it was still out there during my 2008 winter. Here's another page about that building...it was finally put in service at the end of the 2012-13 summer. Oh, for more than you ever wanted to know about the South Pole water supply, including explosive videos, go here.

Even further downwind of the station (like about 5 miles), work was was underway on the new seismic vault project, otherwise known as SPRESSO.