Lab Matters Winter 2021 | Page 15

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

APHL has formally partnered with CDC to support public health laboratories to participate in wastewater surveillance for the COVID-19 response and beyond . Alongside CDC , APHL is working to build this innovative capacity for wastewater testing in public health and environmental laboratories .

Researcher Nichole Brinkman prepares samples to partition SARS-CoV-2 in solid material . Photo : US EPA

area served by the utility , and account for differences in fecal contribution and laboratory methods .

Academic researchers and wastewater utilities began COVID-19 wastewater surveillance as a grassroots effort , demonstrating the power of this public health tool . As wastewater surveillance to support the COVID-19 response grows into a sustainable , nationwide system , wastewater testing will need to transition out of specialized , environmental university laboratories , and into industry and public health laboratories with the necessary capacity and public health reporting abilities . Public health laboratories are particularly well suited for wastewater surveillance testing because they can rapidly coordinate with public health partners .

NWSS is a flexible surveillance platform that can incorporate new targets ( e . g ., antibiotic resistance genes , as well as waterborne , foodborne and hospitalassociated pathogens ). APHL has formally partnered with CDC to support public health laboratories ’ participation in wastewater surveillance for the COVID-19 response and beyond . Alongside CDC , APHL is working to build this innovative capacity for wastewater testing in public health and environmental laboratories .

Monitoring SARS-CoV-2 Virus Levels in Wastewater to Assess Trends in Community Infection Levels

This past spring , US EPA ’ s Office of Research and Development began working with Ohio ’ s EPA , Department of Health , universities and wastewater utilities to initiate a SARS-CoV-2 wastewater monitoring network for the state . Since a standard , validated method is not available for quantifying coronaviruses in water , the research initially focused on rapidly assessing methods to detect SARS-CoV-2 within wastewater . Once a suitable approach was identified , researchers began using it to measure the number of viral RNA molecules in wastewater samples received from utilities across the southwest corner of Ohio .

This effort is an example of the fastpaced , solutions-oriented research being conducted by US EPA to meet a national need . An interlaboratory comparison of methods to quantify SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater funded by the Water Research Foundation showed internal precision but varied in absolute quantification of viral

RNA among protocols . ⁷ This indicates the need for standardization of protocols for wastewater surveillance . In the next few months , US EPA hopes to have validated , robust genetic- and culture-based methods that can be shared broadly .

In October 2020 , Ohio began posting wastewater monitoring results on its public Coronavirus Dashboard , allowing data to be used by state and local officials to prioritize public health advisory efforts . Through this collaboration , the organizations are working together to share analytical and modeling approaches , conduct interlaboratory comparisons , and standardize utility and laboratory data reporting approaches . In December 2020 , Ohio began submitting their statewide data into NWSS . n

DIGITAL EXTRA : Contact APHL and NWSS for information on setting up wastewater testing in your public health laboratory .

References :

1 . Ahmed W , Angel N , Edson J , Bibby K , Bivins A , O ; Brien JW et al . First confirmed detection of SARS-CoV-2 in untreated wastewater in Australia : A proof of concept for the wastewater surveillance of COVID-19 in the community . Science of the Total Environment 2020 , 728 , 138764 .

2 . Medema G , Heijnen L , Elsinga G , Italiaander R , Brouwer A . Presence of SARS-Coronavirus-2 RNA in Sewage and Correlation with Reported COVID-19 Prevalence in the Early Stage of the Epidemic in The Netherlands . Environmental Science & Technology Letters 2020 , 7 , ( 7 ), 511-516 .

3 . Gerrity D , Papp K , Stoker M , Sims A , Frehner W . Early-pandemic wastewater surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in Southern Nevada : Methodology , occurrence , and incidence / prevalence considerations . Water Research X 2021 , 10 , 100086 .

4 . Graham KE , Loeb SK , Wolfe MK , Catoe D , Sinnott-Armstrong N , Kim S et al . SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Wastewater Settled Solids Is Associated with COVID-19 Cases in a Large Urban Sewershed . Environmental Science & Technology 2020 .

5 . Gonzalez R , Curtis K , Bivins A , Bibby K , Weir MH , Yetka K et al . COVID-19 surveillance in Southeastern Virginia using wastewater-based epidemiology . Water Research 2020 , 186 , 116296 .

6 . Peccia J , Zulli A , Brackney DE , Grubaugh ND , Kaplan EH , Casanovas-Massana A et al . Measurement of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater tracks community infection dynamics . Nature Biotechnology 2020 , 38 , ( 10 ), 1164-1167 .

7 . Pecson BM , Darby E , Haas CN , Amha Y , Bartolo M , Danielson R et al . Reproducibility and sensitivity of 36 methods to quantify the SARS-CoV-2 genetic signal in wastewater : findings from an interlaboratory methods evaluation in the US . Environmental Science : Water Research and Technology 2021 . Available from https :// doi . org / 10.1039 / D0EW00946F