wastewater treatment

The town of Yarmouth and the Barnstable County Commissioners are urging the state to back off a proposed limit on the amount of state assistance towns can get for their projects to install sewers.

Barnstable County provides low- and no-interest loans to residents who need help paying to fix, replace or upgrade their septic systems, or hook up to municipal sewers. That loan program, called Cape Cod AquiFund, just got a $13 million cash infusion.

Can we be making better use of our abundant, nutrient-rich urine? That'll be the topic of the Rich Earth Summit, a three-day conference in Marlboro, Vermont happening in November.

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.

Two years ago, the town sewer system’s critical central vacuum system malfunctioned, after heavy rain caused a failure in the electrical panel. The results, for many, were unpleasant.

Forget the era of volunteers getting water quality data every five days. Data loggers are collecting information every 10 minutes.

The feds could eventually release rules limiting the use of treated sludge as fertilizer, meaning more towns will be trying to dispose of theirs. The team at the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center call this scenario, "Sludgement Day."

Research happening at the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center is examining if wood chips could help remove the “forever chemicals” known as PFAS from the environment.

Towns throughout the Cape have to cut down nitrogen pollution to waterways as part of the state’s new rules on septic systems.

The potential delay in the plan to connect to the Joint Base’s wastewater treatment plant comes as towns across the Cape are installing sewers to cut nitrogen pollution in local waters.