INDIANA — Respiratory illnesses are spreading across the country. The evidence is in the water that comes out of our homes and businesses.
Wastewater testing is being used to help identify what viruses are surging here in Indiana.
The method was first used to monitor polio decades ago but has become more common again in the U.S., especially during the pandemic.
“All of the water that we use out of our homes, that comes through the toilets, but also through showers and washing machines and dishwashers,” said Dr. Amy Lockwood, the Lead of Public Health Partnerships at Verily. “All of that water ends up at treatment facilities, and you can look to see what kinds of pathogens are circulating in a community.”
Right now, in Indiana, several viruses are showing up in the wastewater.
“Flu, RSV, COVID, and Norovirus, and there are other diseases that are out there as well,” explained Dr. Lockwood.
Verily works with a site in Carmel, along with many other agencies across the nation, including the CDC.
“It starts to give you a clue to help you make a better diagnosis and make that more quickly,” Dr. Lockwood told WRTV.
Wastewater facilities collect the water on-site, package and send it to Verily’s lab in San Francisco.
“We do sample processing and prepare that sample in order to get the sample to be as clean as possible,” said Dr. Lockwood.
After the samples are collected from the wastewater, the process doesn’t stop there for the water at plants.
“This is the last stage of treatment, right before we get to disinfection. So, this process is letting any solid material that remains in the wastewater settle out,” explained Chris Kennedy, the Director of Wastewater treatment for Citizen’s Energy Group. “We remove that material. It then continues to our disinfection facility where pathogens are destroyed.”
The Belmont Advanced Wastewater treatment plant was the first activated facility to be commissioned in the U.S.
It can collect up to 300 million gallons of water per day, that’s then treated through a five-phase process to make it safe again to use.
“We pull out our water upstream of the city and we return it downstream of the city,” Kennedy told WRTV. “That water that we're returning to the river is actually cleaner than the native water itself.”
While Kennedy focuses on wastewater that's safe to use again, health officials told WRTV they can learn the most from it beforehand.
“It's as close as we have to real-time information about what's circulating in a community at any point in time,” explained Dr. Lockwood.
Those results are typically shared within 48 hours.
Wastewater testing is also used to see what's going on in animal populations.
Health officials also told WRTV they're looking for Bird Flu to track the spread of the virus.
