On an unpleasant day in February, I was standing in front of my apartment,

whoop, barely, almost just looking to fill, which is a located right on the

edge of downtown Concord. Capital of New Hampshire, and we were supposed to get a

couple inches of snow tonight, but we got rain. Lots of rain. It's freezing, it's

gross. And all the snow that we have is melting, making it's way down here.

This is the sound of a storm drain, an honest look at this river running right

under my feet, and above me are the first and smallest tributaries in this

unlikely ecosystem, gutters. The very phrase gets your mind out of the gutter,

assumes it is a filthy place, hardly worthy of serious inquiry. And if you do get

your mind out of the gutter, and stick your nose there instead, you can also

smell, it smells a little bit like rotten eggs.

That egg-eat smell? That's hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and flammable gas that

might be produced by sulfur-reducing bacteria. A category of organism known for

surviving in extreme environments, with little to no oxygen, thermal vents,

acidic and volcanic hot springs, or you know pipes, hot water heaters, and storm

drains. They're extreme environments. They are places where there's

opportunity, but there's also a lot of challenges and risks that urban life has

to deal with, and the gutter is probably a very good example of that.

This is Outside In. I'm Taylor Krimby, in for Sam Evans Brown. Today we've got a bonus

episode from our series 10x10, where we take a close look at unusual or overlooked ecosystems.

This special episode was sponsored and selected by our lovely donors, thank you very much,

who chose between four options and ultimately decided to send us sifting through city gutters.

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