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Board backs letter supporting 25‑site urine diversion pilot, sets conditions for hauling and site reviews
Summary
The Felmouth Board of Health agreed to provide a support letter for a 25‑installation urine‑diversion pilot funded by an approximately $417,000 DEP grant, approved hauling by the test center subject to vehicle inspection and conditions, and said it will review site plans for each exterior installation.
The Felmouth Board of Health voted to provide a written letter supporting a Department of Environmental Protection application for a 25‑site urine‑diverting toilet pilot on Tuesday, after hearing a presentation from Brian Horesley of the Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center.
Horesley told the board the project has received “approximately $417,000” in DEP grant funding to install and monitor 25 urine‑diverting toilet systems across four targeted watersheds. He asked the board to submit a 64B application package and requested the board’s letter of support so the state would accept the filing.
Board members pressed Horesley on operational details, including the pump and fittings used to transfer stored urine to a truck, containment on the test‑center vehicle and how tank overflows would be handled. Horesley described using two 250‑gallon IBC totes strapped into a Ford F‑550 and a Bosworth Guzzler G4 pump, and proposed an inch‑and‑a‑quarter cam‑lock fitting at houses to simplify connections. He said engineering drawings in the application are draft examples and that final plans will be engineered site‑by‑site.
The board also discussed safety and inspections. One member raised the risk of incorrect connections and urged signage on house fittings; another asked that the hauling vehicle be inspected by the health agent. The board voted to approve hauling of project urine by the test center, conditioned on inspection of the hauling vehicle and delegation of engineering review to staff, with one member recorded as abstaining.
Members emphasized that the town will still require individual site approvals for exterior tanks. Horesley said the DEP is treating the filing as a “site‑specific provisional approval” capped at 25 installations and that the project will monitor performance through September 2028. He told the board the monitoring goal is to measure nutrients removed and compare results to other Innovative Alternative systems.
The Board of Health’s vote authorizes the chair to send the requested support letter for the DEP application and directs the health agent to inspect the hauling vehicle and review site plans as they are submitted. The board also requested that the applicant return to present the first set of site plans in detail before broader batching of subsequent plans.
