The Alternative

The Massachusetts Alternative Septic System Test Center (MASSTC) is a Program of the

Barnstable County Department of Health and Environment

What Is Nitrogen and What Exactly Is A "Nitrogen Cycle?"

We've been chipping away at common terms on our Wastewater Terminology page. Have you checked them out? When it comes to nitrogen, it's a world unto itself or, a cycle unto itself. It's a biggie.

What is nitrogen?

Simply put, it's a periodic table element with the symbol N that makes up the DNA of every organism on earth. It is the fourth most abundant element found in the human body after carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It's also a colorless, odorless, inert gas, that constitutes 78% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Alongside phosphorus and potassium, it's also one of three primary plant nutrients that provide nourishment essential for the growth and maintenance of crops and food production.

How does nitrogen move through the environment?

The nitrogen cycle is the natural circular (cyclical/repeating) pathway through which nitrogen moves through the environment. Let’s start this journey in the atmosphere where nitrogen makes up around 78% of our air as nitrogen gas or N₂. Nitrogen gas, or inert nitrogen, is pulled from the atmosphere through a natural process called “biological nitrogen fixation”; a somewhat complicated process by which nitrogen gets used on earth for, well, life. It becomes part of, or "fixed" (fastened securely in position), in soil, food, humans, plant life, and more.

How have humans altered the nitrogen cycle?

Unfortunately, human activity has altered the cycle through fertilizer use, septic systems, and other activities that put excess nitrous oxide gas into the atmosphere. When too much nitrogen is introduced to the environment, it upsets the cycle's balance, causing problems in ecologically sensitive areas like Cape Cod. Cyanobacteria overgrowth at our beaches is one example of excess nitrogen (and phosphorus) from human activities that most Cape Codders are familiar with.

Interested in learning more? Barnstable County's website discusses cyanobacteria and how excess nitrogen, from human inputs such as fertilizers faulty septic systems, has prompted an ecologically unhealthy overgrowth of plant material in our ponds called eutrophication (the process by which a water body becomes enriched in dissolved nutrients such as phosphates and nitrogen).

Class dismissed!

What Is The RME?

A Responsible Management Entity (RME) is a utility designed to care for septic systems over their lifespan, much like a sewer utility would care for centralized wastewater systems.

While a sewer utility manages a community’s wastewater treatment plant, a Responsible Management Entity (RME) is the support system for I/A systems. Our Septic Utility Program (SUP) is an institution that provides management assistance to ensure residential Innovative/Alternative septic systems are functioning as they should to protect our health and environment. Caring for these systems and collecting data on their performance provides the confidence in the ability of this technology to be used as a tool to improve water quality.

MASSTC is the first RME of its kind dedicated to managing Innovative/Alternative systems. Our mission is to help Barnstable County communities meet their water quality and public health goals by managing Innovative/Alternative septic systems for better performance and reliability through the establishment of a flexible and equitable management utility.

Did you get this newsletter from a friend? Subscribe here to get your own updates!