COVID-19 changed things drastically in a short amount of time. Because it was so unexpected, it also brought with it much speculation. Speculation about how to treat it, what symptoms were associated with it, and where it was. On surfaces? In the air? In wastewater? While we may not be pandemic experts, we are wastewater experts. We did what we do best and got to work immediately to learn more about COVID-19. What is certain is that wastewater is gaining steady recognition as a potential tool to help make sense of what is happening in our community. Individuals infected with COVID-19, both asymptomatic and symptomatic, shed the virus in their stool that enters the sewage system. Fortunately, COVID-19 has not been shown to remain viable in wastewater but its ribonucleic acid (RNA – genetic material of the virus) can still be detected and serve as an effective indicator.

In response to this research opportunity, OCSD is providing samples to:

1. the ongoing California State Water Resource Control Board’s Direct Potable Reuse Pathogen Removal Study (“DPR-2”) and recently added SARSCoV-2 monitoring,
2. Stanford University’s SCAN: Sewer Coronavirus Alert Network, and
3. The University of Arizona’s Water and Energy Sustainable Technology Center to safeguard employee safety and support development of reliable methods for detecting and quantifying SARS-CoV-2. In addition, OC San is actively evaluating other partners to continue monitoring and expand testing of the virus.

Through the research that OCSD is participating in, we are doing our part as a wastewater agency to monitor for COVID-19 in our wastewater. It is believed that COVID-19 sewage surveillance may provide public health officials with an additional tool to understand community trends and assist in making informed public health decisions. In addition, OCSD is closely monitoring a potential collaborative opportunity where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working to establish a national wastewater surveillance system (NWSS), which would allow state, tribal, local, and territorial health departments to submit wastewater testing data into a national database. One thing that you can be sure of is that OCSD is doing its part during these times.