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

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.2 • 639 Ratings

🗓️ 31 May 2024

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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 [email protected] 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

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0:00.0	Understanding the human body is a team effort. That's where the Yachtel group comes in.
0:05.8	Researchers at Yachtolt have been delving into the secrets of probiotics for 90 years. Yacold also
0:11.5	partners with nature portfolio to advance gut microbiome science through the global grants for
0:16.6	gut health, an investigator-led research program. To learn more about Yachtold, visit yawcult.co.j.p.
0:23.8	That's y-A-K-U-L-T.C-O.JP.
0:28.3	When it comes to a guide for your gut, count on Yacol.
0:31.9	Last year, Massachusetts passed new regulations forcing Cape Cod communities to clean up
0:36.9	wastewater pollution, much of which
0:38.9	is coming from people's homes.
0:43.7	As a result, towns on the Cape are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to install sewers
0:49.0	and upgrade septic systems.
0:51.3	But what if there was a cheaper solution?
0:53.8	Some say there is. It's called urine
0:55.9	diversion, or delightfully, pee cycling. For science quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman. You're listening
1:01.6	to the final episode of our three-part fascination series on Cape Cod's water pollution. We're
1:06.9	calling this episode Liquid Gold. This week, WBUR's Barbara Moran is taking us to Falmouth, Massachusetts.
1:19.8	Hi, I'm Barbara. Nice to meet you.
1:22.4	This is amazing.
1:24.1	Oh, thank you.
1:25.1	Earl Barnhart lives in a beautiful house in Falmouth with his wife, Hilda Mengay.
1:30.3	There's a huge vegetable garden and fruit trees.
1:33.3	Oh, there's chickens.
	...

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