Warsaw Utility Participating In COVID-19 Sampling Study
September 16, 2020 at 10:13 p.m.
Warsaw Utility Participating In COVID-19 Sampling Study
By David [email protected]
At Wednesday’s biweekly press conference on the coronavirus at City Hall, Mayor Joe Thallemer said Warsaw Utility Manager Brian Davison was made aware of some sampling that was being done at sewage treatment plants looking for coronavirus remnants.
“This is some testing that has been going on from very early on in this pandemic. We were approached by the Indiana Finance Authority to do some of that testing in our community,” Thallemer said, noting the sampling has begun.
Davison said the IFA was made aware of the ability to detect COVID-19’s RNA (ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid present in all living cells) in wastewater.
“Really, in advance of the traditional symptom testing results, we’re able to detect that (RNA) in advance of that testing in the population,” Davison said.
The University of Colorado, among others, is one of the big players in this study, he said. “They have been able to correlate these COVID counts in the wastewater to outbreaks, so as they see an increase there’s an increase in the outbreaks of COVID-19 cases, and as they decrease then they see a decrease as well,” Davison said. “They’re able to use this information then for some advanced planning, potentially even a week in advance of traditional sampling and testing, which would give (County Public Health Officer) Dr. (William) Remington’s office a head’s start on trying” to handle the pop-ups of COVID surges.
After IFA was made aware of the wastewater testing, IFA contacted 120 Water, a company out of Zionsville that is familiar with running mass water testing, to run the program, Davison said. IFA is funding the program, 120 Water is taking care of the logistics and the city is doing the sampling for it.
“They send us our sample bottles, we package them and then we send them to a lab,” Davison said. That data is referred to University of Notre Dame where two doctors – Dr. Kyle Bibby, engineering, and Dr. Alex Perkins, infectious disease – take the data from the lab and interpret that data. The doctors then will send their interpretations and lab results back to the community, which then can be forwarded on to Remington at the county health department. Remington then can use that data to make some educated decisions on what may need to be done in different areas, Davison explained.
He said there’s 35 to 40 wastewater treatment plants that were eligible to be a part of the program. Warsaw’s was one of the chosen based on established criteria.
“They say there’s about a five to seven-day turnaround time on the data,” Davison said. Warsaw’s first sample was sent in Sept. 10, and he anticipated starting to see some results as early as today.
“In the beginning, the results may not be as useful as they will be a week or two into it. You sort of have to get that baseline before you can make any interpretations as to whether you’ll be seeing any decrease or increase in the COVID counts. So it’ll be interesting to see what they come back with on these first few weeks of testing,” Davison said.
They are testing three days a week. Samples go to the lab Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Warsaw is testing six sites: the wastewater treatment plant and five lift stations. By testing the plant, and because Warsaw also treats Leesburg, Winona Lake and surrounding mobile home parks, the testing data will cover a large area. The lift stations will help narrow down the field where the COVID-19 surge is or isn’t.
“So that’s some of the benefits and how we can use the sampling to help us fight this COVID disease,” Davison said.
Thallemer said he’ll be curious to see what the baseline results are and how they correlate to other communities relative to the city’s positivity rate and infection numbers.
“Very interesting tool,” Remington said. “There will be a learning curve for all of us to figure out what to do with that data. But I’ll tell you, five years down the road what an investment. It’s not just COVID you can use that for. Kudos to you for pursuing that. That’s really leading edge. Thank you.”
Davison said he didn’t know what IFA’s plans were for expanding the testing, and Warsaw was scheduled to test for the next nine weeks, with talks that it will continue after that. That decision will be based on how useful the information is to help curtail the spread of the disease.
At Wednesday’s biweekly press conference on the coronavirus at City Hall, Mayor Joe Thallemer said Warsaw Utility Manager Brian Davison was made aware of some sampling that was being done at sewage treatment plants looking for coronavirus remnants.
“This is some testing that has been going on from very early on in this pandemic. We were approached by the Indiana Finance Authority to do some of that testing in our community,” Thallemer said, noting the sampling has begun.
Davison said the IFA was made aware of the ability to detect COVID-19’s RNA (ribonucleic acid, a nucleic acid present in all living cells) in wastewater.
“Really, in advance of the traditional symptom testing results, we’re able to detect that (RNA) in advance of that testing in the population,” Davison said.
The University of Colorado, among others, is one of the big players in this study, he said. “They have been able to correlate these COVID counts in the wastewater to outbreaks, so as they see an increase there’s an increase in the outbreaks of COVID-19 cases, and as they decrease then they see a decrease as well,” Davison said. “They’re able to use this information then for some advanced planning, potentially even a week in advance of traditional sampling and testing, which would give (County Public Health Officer) Dr. (William) Remington’s office a head’s start on trying” to handle the pop-ups of COVID surges.
After IFA was made aware of the wastewater testing, IFA contacted 120 Water, a company out of Zionsville that is familiar with running mass water testing, to run the program, Davison said. IFA is funding the program, 120 Water is taking care of the logistics and the city is doing the sampling for it.
“They send us our sample bottles, we package them and then we send them to a lab,” Davison said. That data is referred to University of Notre Dame where two doctors – Dr. Kyle Bibby, engineering, and Dr. Alex Perkins, infectious disease – take the data from the lab and interpret that data. The doctors then will send their interpretations and lab results back to the community, which then can be forwarded on to Remington at the county health department. Remington then can use that data to make some educated decisions on what may need to be done in different areas, Davison explained.
He said there’s 35 to 40 wastewater treatment plants that were eligible to be a part of the program. Warsaw’s was one of the chosen based on established criteria.
“They say there’s about a five to seven-day turnaround time on the data,” Davison said. Warsaw’s first sample was sent in Sept. 10, and he anticipated starting to see some results as early as today.
“In the beginning, the results may not be as useful as they will be a week or two into it. You sort of have to get that baseline before you can make any interpretations as to whether you’ll be seeing any decrease or increase in the COVID counts. So it’ll be interesting to see what they come back with on these first few weeks of testing,” Davison said.
They are testing three days a week. Samples go to the lab Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Warsaw is testing six sites: the wastewater treatment plant and five lift stations. By testing the plant, and because Warsaw also treats Leesburg, Winona Lake and surrounding mobile home parks, the testing data will cover a large area. The lift stations will help narrow down the field where the COVID-19 surge is or isn’t.
“So that’s some of the benefits and how we can use the sampling to help us fight this COVID disease,” Davison said.
Thallemer said he’ll be curious to see what the baseline results are and how they correlate to other communities relative to the city’s positivity rate and infection numbers.
“Very interesting tool,” Remington said. “There will be a learning curve for all of us to figure out what to do with that data. But I’ll tell you, five years down the road what an investment. It’s not just COVID you can use that for. Kudos to you for pursuing that. That’s really leading edge. Thank you.”
Davison said he didn’t know what IFA’s plans were for expanding the testing, and Warsaw was scheduled to test for the next nine weeks, with talks that it will continue after that. That decision will be based on how useful the information is to help curtail the spread of the disease.
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