SSSC Plumbing and Energy Reliability Improvements

Sitka Sound Science Center Inc, Sitka AK

Investigators

Abstract

The Sitka Sound Science Center (SSSC) supports scientific research conducted in the Eastern Gulf of Alaska, an important location for study of the North Pacific and the Tongass, the country's largest national forest. A broad array of scientists conduct marine biological research at a time when changes to the ocean in the Gulf of Alaska will have dramatic impacts on world economies and local communities, in a critically important geographic part of the United States where changes in the climate, oceanography and biology are being monitored closely. With formal and informal partnerships with high profile organizations such as the University of California Santa Cruz, University of Alaska, Scripps Oceanographic Institution, the Smithsonian, Stanford, Duke, University of Washington, Alaska Department of Fish and Game and NOAA, the SSSC hosts many researchers whose field work and scientific experiments require dependable systems. Located in Sitka, Alaska, a community that is 33% Alaska Native, SSSC provides research and educational opportunities for minorities as well as rural coastal community members. The facility hosts many NSF-funded visiting scientists, and it conducts its own research and science educational programs which are also supported by the NSF. Additionally, it provides informal science educational experiences to thousands of visitors and students each year. SSSC hosts hundreds of local and non-local k-16 students as interns, in camps, field courses, and after school programs, who will have opportunities to conduct successful educational research projects because of these improvements. This proposal will improve the seawater system by installing a back up saltwater intake system to ensure reliable saltwater flow from the North Pacific to the Sitka-based field station, replacement of fouled and deteriorated salt water plumbing from the pump to the facility and backup power generation for the entire facility. The improved infrastructure has been laid out in a completed facility master plan prepared by engineers, architects and major stakeholders. This straightforward project has been designed with consultation with other facilities that rely on saltwater in the region. This physical plant improvement project will create important system redundancy, and facility support in an island location where dependability is critical to conduct meaningful research. Reliable water delivery and energy backup systems will ensure dependable scientific integrity for experiments conducted in the wet laboratories of the Sitka Sound Science Center. These improvements will also help build capacity as they will be compatible with a heat exchange system designed for our facility. The SSSC website is at http://www.sitkascience.org/.