The Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center—or MASSTC—is a Barnstable County program that has done cutting-edge wastewater management research for the past 25 years. Now, with a $3.3 million infusion of state and federal funds, MASSTC is getting a major makeover.
MASSTC is in a wooded area between the northern end of Crane Wildlife Management area and the southern end of Joint Base Cape Cod. It consists of a series of trailers and prefabricated buildings scattered across a sandy lot.
Director Brian Baumgartel showed CAI reporter Gilda Geist around the campus, where the multi-million-dollar makeover is already in progress.
Gilda Geist What has been the role of MASSTC in Barnstable County and across the country up until now?
Brian Baumgartel MASSTC is a unique facility where we put advanced septic system technologies to the test. There are obviously the more standard systems that homeowners in the area might be familiar with, which are composed of a simple septic tank and a leach field. These [advanced] technologies are intended to remove more contaminants from wastewater than those standard technologies.
When companies come up with these technologies and they need a place to verify that they work, they'll come to us to get some of that certified data, so that they can present that to regulators and be allowed to sell their products. In addition to that, we do a lot of grant-based research, looking at things like pathogen removal, nutrient removal, contaminants of emerging concern, PFAS, which is one of the hot topics out there. So the test center has performed that function since 1999, when we opened.
GG The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative grant you folks received is about $2 million, and then the federal government is throwing in another $1.3 million in pandemic relief funds. So that's a total of about $3.3 million. What is this money going to be used for?
BB The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds we received from Barnstable County's allotment, and that was primarily focused on creation of what we've been calling the Clean Water Center. This first phase of the project provides much needed office space for our staff. If you look around, we're kind of in a rented space that's half falling apart.
The new building also has a large training and educational space. So obviously, as towns on Cape Cod are looking to utilize these various technologies, including sewers and innovative alternative septic system technologies, we need to better educate the public on what those things are and how they function, and also just better educate them on the reason why we're doing all this work. So this space will provide us that opportunity to hold educational classes about water and wastewater and the water cycle and all those things so they can learn about nutrients and all that. So that first piece, that $1.3 million provides that.
The $2 million in funds from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative will locate another building here to provide bench-top-scale space for private companies or university researchers to come and try out, in small scale, some of their ideas. MASSTC historically has been able to fulfill the need for full-scale testing space, and this enhances our ability to offer this at bench-top scale. So if a researcher has a very nascent idea, they'll be able to use these new laboratory facilities to put that equipment together and run it and utilize wastewater that we have on site. And that's really something that's missing in the research space for wastewater treatment in general.
The other thing that this MassTech grant will add is a small workshop space for our clients to be able to do onsite prototyping. So when they're here and they're trying to invent the latest and greatest technology and they don't have a piece or part, they'll be able to fabricate that onsite.
GG What does the timeline for all of this look like?
BB Phase one, which is that education center piece, that's under construction right now, if you were to come out on site, you'd see that happening as we speak. In fact, I'm looking out the window watching them work on it right now. The second piece of this, the laboratory facility, we'll be shooting for the end of 2026.
