2023 Life Logs, Day 108: Celebrating Earth Day a Little Early
Date: Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Weather: Foggy with Drizzle, Windy; High 57, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
My day started by taking Shadow to his every six-week ‘beauty shop’ appointment to be groomed. I dropped him and went to the boat to work for a couple of hours. Just before noon, I headed into Falmouth to feed the cats at Heather and Jed’s and then home to grab a bite of lunch before going on a little field trip to the MASSTC (Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center).
The Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center is the nation’s leading third-party testing and research facility for innovative/alternative (I/A) onsite septic treatment technologies. There are only three test centers in the United States and the work they are doing is so important for the environment. Thus, the title of this log. I felt like I was celebrating Earth Day just a couple of days early. Our guide was a young man named Bryan Horsley. Bryan is the site Operator and is passionate about protecting the local environment.
But what is an innovative/alternative (I/A) septic system test center? It doesn’t sound exciting, but I found it to be one of the best Newscomers field trip I have attended. It is just what the title indicates, a site where alternative septic systems are tested. But why is this necessary? It took Bryan an hour and half to explain it to us, but one of his explanations stuck with me. Our current way of dealing with human waste is linear. We flush and everything goes into a city sewer system or septic tank in our yard. If it is the latter, the solids sink in a tank and the liquids go through a pipe to a second tank and eventually into plastic pipes with holes in them in a leech field of sand. The liquid leaks out of the pipes into the ground and eventually finds its way into the water table or into a waterway. A huge amount of nitrogen and phosphates are in that liquid. The alternative systems are circular. Everything can be the same up to the leech field, but in many of the alternative systems, the leech field. There is still sand, but under the sand there can be wood chips or silt or both. As the liquid filters through this organic material, nitrification takes place. The ammonia in our urine combines with oxygen changing the nitrogen into nitrates and nitrites which plants can absorb as food or fertilizer. So instead of sending harmful nitrogen into our waterways, the nitrites and nitrates can be used to feed plants. There are all kinds of exciting innovations. I am not explaining this very well as I have a lot to learn. One of the main goals of the center, other can research and product testing, is education and outreach. Our guide, Bryan, did a great job of explaining the systems and getting all of us to want to learn more.
I headed back to the boat after the field trip and made a lot of progress in varnish removal. I won’t get to go back to the boat until Friday, but I am hopeful that I might complete the removal Friday and start sanding on Saturday. That might be a bit too ambitious, but I can hope. I stopped working this afternoon when I got the text that Shadow was ready for pick up. We came home and both of us crashed. My right knee desperately needed to be elevated and iced, so we sat on the sofa, and I watched a couple of episodes of Succession. I watched one episode the other day and got hooked.
