Manchester — Fire and earth have been the options in Connecticut for what funeral directors call "disposition" of loved ones' remains. Now, water is a choice.

Connecticut Aquamation, housed in the John F. Tierney Funeral Home in Manchester, already has reduced the bodies of 16 people in a liquid-filled chamber since launching the service on March 18, business founder Tom J. Tierney said Thursday.

Called alkaline hydrolysis, the process has been legal in the state for several years, but Tierney is the first funeral home director in Connecticut to perform the service. Demand appears to be growing, however, and an aquamation business based in Torrington is getting ready to launch with an option that Tierney is not offering.

Marcella Motola said the family planned for her husband, Craig Motola, who died of cancer on April 1 at age 64, to be cremated and made arrangements for that process last year.

When Tierney told her about the aquamation option the day after her husband passed, Motola said she knew it was the right choice. Craig Motola, a phone company lineman, was a conservationist who built one of the first Energy Star-rated homes in Connecticut, she said.

"When Tom said it was less of a carbon footprint, I said that's exactly what my husband would want," Motola said.

The process is similar wherever alkaline hydrolysis is done (First made legal in Minnesota in 2003, aquamation is permitted some 27 U.S. states now). The body, typically up to 500 pounds, is placed in a stainless steel tank and a solution of 95 percent water and 5 percent alkali, such as potassium hydroxide, is added. The solution is heated to about 200 degrees and kept moving over the body, accelerating the breakdown of organic materials.

After between nine and 14 hours in the cylindrical chamber, which Tierney bought for $210,000 from Indiana-based Bio-Response Solutions, the nontoxic wastewater is drained and the remains are dried, ground into a fine powder, and presented to the family. The same material as in fire cremation is left — calcium phosphate, the inorganic material in bones. Tierney does not have a fire crematorium and said he has no plans for one. He transports bodies to Connecticut Valley Crematory in Cromwell for people who want that service.

Aquamation, he said, is a greener alternative, with no emissions and much less energy used.

"The sustainablity aspect of it is huge," Tierney said.

Sara Pizzanello said her husband, John D. Pizzanello of Manchester, was "a big fan of the beach," so the aquamation option "brought me some comfort." Pizzanello also decided to convert her husband's ashes into stones, a service that Tierney began offering last year.

The plan is to leave a couple of the stones at the shore in Ogunquit, Maine, her husband's favorite beach spot, Sara Pizzanello said. She said she also liked the green aspect of aquamation and that her husband's body did not need to be transported from the Tierney Funeral Home.

"It's all around good," Pizzanello said.

Tierney, a 45-year-old married father of two daughters, is the third generation to run the funeral home on West Center Street, which his grandfather, John F. Tierney, started in 1956. John's son and Tom J. Tierney's father, Tom F. Tierney, 75, said he was skeptical about all aspects of aquamation, including the cost, technology, and public acceptance, when his son broached the idea.

"My mindset is, 'Let's just do it like we always have,'" he said. "I'm nowhere near as progressive as Tommy."

But both he and his son say they were pleasantly surprised by families' embrace of the method. Tom J. Tierney said four people already have prepaid for the service for themselves and he has been fielding calls from all over the state and as far away as Philadelphia.

"I'm the first one to do it (in Connecticut)," Tierney said. "I won't be the last, that I know."

"Alkaline hydrolysis is an emerging method of disposition that can appeal to those seeking a greener alternative to a burial or cremation," Lionel J. Lessard Jr., president of the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association, said. "Our role as funeral directors is to help families and individuals create personal and meaningful funerals or celebrations of life by presenting them with a variety of choices. We are pleased to add alkaline hydrolysis as another option for them to consider as they make their plans."

Not everyone is on board. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Doctrine last year issued a statement opposing both alkaline hydrolysis and terramation, or human composting, which Connecticut legislators have been working to legalize. The church largely approves of cremation, with limits on how ashes are treated, and the committee noted that bone ash also is left from alkaline hydrolysis.

"That is not all that remains, however," the committee wrote. "In addition, there are the 100 gallons of brown liquid into which the greater part of the body has been dissolved. This liquid is treated as wastewater and poured down the drain into the sewer system (in certain cases it is treated as fertilizer and spread over a field or forest).

"This procedure," the panel wrote, "does not show adequate respect for the human body, nor express hope in the resurrection."

Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, however, chose the method before his death in 2021. The Nobel laureate and anti-apartheid leader from South Africa also was described as an "eco-warrior" who strived to raise awareness of climate change.

As for the liquid "essence" left over from the process, Jonathan Ryan, director of Aquamation of Connecticut, said some families may want it. He has purchased equipment that will preserve both ash and water from alkaline hydrolysis, Ryan said, and will soon offer the service at Gleeson-Ryan Funeral Home in Torrington.

The preserved water will go into a holding tank and families can use it for gardens or to spread on fields or woodlands, Ryan said. He agreed with Tierney that sustainability is the main attraction to alkaline hydrolysis, but added that some people also just don't like the idea of cremation.

"A lot of people, their worst fear is to be in a fire," Ryan said.

Alternately, Tierney said, families have told him that loved ones, including people who never learned to swim, were afraid of water, so aquamation was not for them. Then again, others have embraced the option because their relative or friend loved the water.

"Some people will say, 'Oh, the beach was her sanctuary,'" he said. "It's starting this conversation that people didn't know they wanted to have."

Tierney said he has kept the cost of aquamation — $2,995 to $3,995, depending on whether arrangements are made in person — about the same as cremation.

"I had to make it a level playing field for this to have a chance, I thought," he said.

Cremation is the most popular method of disposition in the U.S., used in 60.5 percent of services and projected to increase to 80 percent in 2035, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. Cost is a factor: the national median cost of a funeral with a viewing and burial in 2021 was $7,848, while the median cost of a funeral with cremation was about $6,971, the association reported. Also, 60 percent of people surveyed last year said they would be interested in exploring "green" funeral options due to potential environmental benefits, cost savings, or for some other reason, up from 55.7 percent in 2021, according to the trade organization.

To make room for the aquamation business, Tierney halved the size of his casket display room. He said he has invested about $500,000 in the venture.

Most of the people who have chosen aquamation for their loved ones did not know about the process before they started arranging loved one's funerals, Tierney said. But most also appreciated that the body would stay in the Tierney Funeral Home and not be transported elsewhere for cremation. Tierney said he was thankful to his grandfather and father for building trust in the community.