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Human Sewage Dumped in Antarctica (November 06, 2009)A Swedish study has found that more than half of 71 Antarctic scientific stations surveyed do not have ANY kind of sewage treatment system.
Such is the impact that E.coli has turned up in Antarctic wildlife for the first time in its history, in fur seals and there is also evidence that Salmonella bacteria is also now present on the Continent.
The biggest countries are amongst the worst offenders, including US, Japan, France, Russia and Britain does not emerge unscathed from the survey.
Sewage treatment at Davis station is simply macerated before being dumped in the sea, in spite of technology existing to treat it to European Standards.
Professor Fredrik Grondahl, of Stockholm's Royal Institute of Technology told ’The Age’ Magazine, “I have been on a couple of Antarctic stations, and with my own eyes seen the need of improvements. On one station the sewage water was released without treatment directly into the sea.'' His survey found that 15 permanent stations used no treatment at all, and only four went to the length of operating tertiary stage plants.
The effect of this sewage on Antarctica is magnified because stations are located mainly on the 2 per cent of ice-free Antarctic rock - terrain that really important for wildlife.
The Antarctic Treaty's Madrid Protocol commits countries to comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment, and calls for waste to be reduced as much as possible to minimise its impact. Why is this not happening.
