Falmouth Moves Forward With Study To Answer Questions About Urine Diversion Pilot
The Falmouth Enterprise
Noelle Annonen
May 23, 2024
The select board this week approved an agreement with the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center for a urine-diversion feasibility study.
The study aims to provide answers to questions Town Meeting voters had about a urine-diversion pilot project, when they decided not to approve it last month. The four-year pilot project would gather data from up to 75 participating households to measure the effectiveness of the practice.
Urine diversion is a wastewater management method in which urine is collected instead of being flushed down the toilet. Nitrogen and phosphorus occur naturally in human pee, so diverting urine from the waste stream lowers the amount of those nutrients making their way into the town’s estuaries.
“My office sees … urine diversion as a tool in our toolbelt with regards to removing nitrogen,” Town Manager Michael Renshaw said.
The town must meet state guidelines for cleaning up local watersheds by reducing nitrogen and phosphorus pollution. The project would provide data to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, so it can determine if urine diversion is a technology that would meet its standards.
This spring, urine-diversion advocates, specifically Hilda Maingay and Earle Barnhart of the Green Center along with Matthew C. Patrick, asked Town Meeting voters to approve the pilot project, hosted by the Alternative Septic System Test Center, and fund it with $1.9 million. But the finance committee had already recommended that voters not approve the project just yet, highlighting questions they had about the details of the project. Those questions ranged from exactly what kind of urine-diverting technology would be used in the study to how the urine would be collected, transported and used. Town Meeting opted not to fund the pilot until they had more information.
The select board already set aside $80,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds last year for the project, which will now be used on the feasibility study to get answers on what the pilot project will entail. The study will determine if there are least 60 homeowners willing to install at least one urine-diverting toilet in their home and use it exclusively, without access to traditional toilets, for the duration of the four-year project. It will also ask if the state plumbing board would approve the urine-diverting devices, how much urine will be collected per household, and how that urine will be disposed of without nitrogen winding up in town waterways.
The scope of work outlined in the agreement also includes drafting a homeowner agreement for participants to sign, which will outline any town subsidies and the responsibility for the maintenance, collection and transport of the urine, along with any requirements for removing the devices, if needed. The test center will also get DEP input on a plan for how it could get the urine-diverting technology classified as an innovative/alternative system under state regulations. The whole project will result in a final report.
Urine-diversion supporters who did not support Article 22 this spring said the project might be ready for a vote at the November Town Meeting. Mr. Renshaw advised that getting an article on the November warrant would be an “aggressive” turnaround time for data from the study. The board and the finance committee would need a final capital request for the project by August 30 to get it on the warrant. Mr. Renshaw said if the study does not meet the August 30 deadline, it will finish by November 29.
The board approved the intermunicipal agreement between the town and the test center, which is a public organization under Barnstable County jurisdiction.