French inspection team says abandoned Wilkes Station poses 'clear risk' to Antarctic environment

A French inspection team has raised concerns about an abandoned Australian base in Antarctica, saying it poses a "clear risk" to the environment, with reports of oil slicks in the vicinity.

Wilkes Station, located three kilometres from Casey Station, was originally built by the United States in 1957, but its management was transferred to Australia two years later.

The station operated for a further 10 years, before it was permanently closed in 1969.

The 33-hectare site is littered with approximately 3,000 rusted drums, which previously contained, or still contain, fuels and other hazardous substances.

There are also several asbestos-riddled buildings, as well as a range of waste, including batteries, old cans of food and animal carcasses.

Much of it is buried beneath the ice and snow, although some is visible on the surface, including near the coastline.

"The inspection team deemed the deteriorating state of the abandoned Wilkes Station site concerning," the group's report stated.

"The presence of buildings partially or completely covered, along with waste and contaminants of various kinds and in significant quantities, poses a clear risk to the Antarctic environment and its dependent and associated ecosystems, including marine ecosystems."

The French team inspected the site in February, but its report was not made public until after the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting in late May.

"In discussions with the on-site scientific team, it emerged that some drums had been spotted at sea, as well as oil slicks in the vicinity of the site," the report stated.

"Therefore, Wilkes presents a significant risk of pollution to the marine environment and coastal ecosystems."

'It's literally frozen in time'

Australian marine ecotoxicologist Darren Koppel visited Wilkes Station several years ago.

"It's literally frozen in time," Dr Koppel said.

"When it was abandoned, it was truly abandoned as is."

Dr Koppel was there to assess the contamination risk to the local marine environment, including freshwater melt streams, as well as seawater and sediments on the ocean floor.

"Those melt streams are critically important to mosses and a lot of macroinvertebrates, which make up the bulk of the terrestrial biodiversity in Antarctica."

His study focused on metal contaminants, including copper, lead and mercury, but not hydrocarbons, such as oil.

He said during his research in 2017–18, no metal contaminants were detected.

"So what that means to us is, at least for that season, those contaminants were staying put, they were locked up in ice, and that's where they stayed for that season.

But he said things could be different during other seasons.

"It could just be one big melt [that] can cause a release of contaminants to that marine environment."

Dr Koppel said Australia had a moral and legal obligation to ensure Antarctica stayed clean.

But, he cautioned that any clean-up operations need to be based on comprehensive monitoring and scientific assessments.

Comprehensive assessment underway

The environmental risks of legacy waste in Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic have been known for decades, and several clean-up operations have already been initiated by Australia.

To develop further clean-up plans, the former Morrison government allocated $14.3 million in 2022 as part of a five-year program known as the "Cleaner Antarctica Strategy".

Over the past summer, a team from the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has been using drone-mounted, ground-penetrating radar to collect data about what lies beneath the ice at Wilkes Station.

"We need to fully understand the extent of potential contamination at a range of sites, including Wilkes," said Tim Spedding, who leads the environmental stewardship program at the AAD.

"So, we're really focused on conducting these comprehensive contaminated site assessments to understand what that environmental risk is.

"That will allow us [to], and inform how, we prioritise sites and how we develop a clean-up strategy that is cost effective and practical."

In its report, the French team commended Australia's assessment efforts to date, but also recommended the "immediate implementation of progressive depollution actions".

Mr Spedding said it was imperative that future clean-up operations don't exacerbate the existing pollution problem.

"Any remediation strategy needs to ensure that while we manage current environmental risk, if there is one, we need to make sure that we don't make the situation worse," he said.

"Wilkes is a complex site in one of the most challenging, logistically, places in the world.

"So, we need to make sure that whatever strategy that we apply is practical, achievable, and still has a net environmental benefit."