Members of The Green Center in Falmouth discuss the concept of “urine diversion” on Sunday Journal.
FALMOUTH – The town of Falmouth could be investing in a new wastewater initiative this spring.
In the interest of helping Cape Cod address its water quality problem, The Green Center, a nonprofit organization in Falmouth, is drumming up support for a tactic referred to as “urine diversion”, which would keep that particular waste from going into the ground using specialized septic systems.
Speaking on the CapeCod.Com Sunday Journal earlier this month, Earle Barnhart with the Green Center said urine diversion has been in practice for 20 years in parts of Europe.
“France now has companies that collect urine on a huge scale, commercially. They make it safe to use for fertilizer, and they sell it to agriculture,” said Barnhart. He added, “They also have tried to figure out how to not pollute the rivers in France, so they are now subsidizing new developments, homes, houses and apartments, 80 percent of the cost if they would be urine-diverted.”
A citizens’ petition to fund a urine-diversion pilot project with a price tag of about two-million dollars is coming before Falmouth town meeting voters in April.
Hilda Maingay with the Green Center says they think towns should pay for this like they pay for sewer infrastructure.
“I think it would benefit the towns to actually invest in it if they were allowed to. So, we have to prove to Mass DEP that this is a strategy that is worth giving credit to, and to what degree, that is to be determined by this project,” she said.
To listen to the full Sunday Journal interview with Barnhart and Maingay, click here.
By Jim McCabe, CapeCod.com NewsCenter
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