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Science Quickly

Troubled Waters on Cape Cod: Liquid Gold (Part 3)

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cape Cod communities are facing an expensive mandate to clean up their wastewater. Urine diversion or “pee-cycling” could be a cost-effective pollution solution. In the third and final installment of our three-part Fascination series about Cape Cod’s “yellow tide,” environmental reporter Barbara Moran meets a Falmouth couple championing this unconventional approach.  You can check out more of Barbara Moran’s reporting on Cape Cod’s water pollution, including the “pee-cycling” pilot project in Falmouth. And watch WBUR and Scientific American’s documentary short exploring how pollution and algae overgrowth threaten this Massachusetts vacation hub. Email us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for our daily newsletter.  This series is a co-production of WBUR and Scientific American. It’s reported and hosted by WBUR’s Barbara Moran. Science Quickly is produced by Jeff DelViscio, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Rachel Feltman. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-checked this series, and Duy Linh Tu and Sebastian Tuinder contributed reporting and sound. WBUR’s Kathleen Masterson edited this series. Additional funding was provided by the Pulitzer Center. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:30.0

Last year, Massachusetts passed new regulations forcing Cape Cod communities to clean up wastewater pollution,

0:36.1

much of which is coming from people's homes.

0:38.6

As a result, towns on the Cape are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to install sewers and upgrade septic systems.

0:49.0

But what if there was a cheaper solution? Some say there is. It's called urine diversion or delightfully,

0:55.8

pee cycling. For science quickly, I'm Rachel Thelman. You're listening to the final episode of

1:00.8

our three-part fascination series on Cape Cod's water pollution.

1:04.8

We're calling this episode liquid gold.

1:07.9

This week, W-B-U-R's Barbara Moran is taking us to Falmouth with his wife,

1:27.5

Hilde Mende. There's a huge vegetable garden and fruit trees.

1:32.0

Oh, there's chickens. Oh, it's like a country club for the

1:34.8

chickens. But I'm not here to see the chickens. I'm here to see the bathroom

1:40.7

because Earl and Hilda are known on Cape Cod as the power couple of pea cycling.

1:48.4

Yes, they recycle their urine. All those luscious vegetables are grown on what Earl calls liquid gold.

...

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