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There's apparently a pandemic mystery in New York : Unknown coronavirus variants keep showing up in certain wastewater samples but never in human testing. It may not be easy to find the sources--the city has over 7,400 miles of sewer pipes, 135,000 catch basins, and 95 wastewater pumping stations.

It's a relatively new field in environmental engineering, this use of wastewater to track infectious diseases. The CDC has added a wastewater tracker for changes in case rates on its COVID site, although data collection is scant. Here is some background info on the effort.

Has anyone experience with this type of investigations? How easy do you think it will be to track down the source of the unknown variants?

P.S. I have been very fortunate with respect to the pandemic (2 cases among relatives), but I know many who got sick (my primary physician was one of the very first in the region to be hospitalized) and some separated by one degree who were less fortunate (a former colleague lost his wife early on when she caught the virus in the hospital after an organ transplant).

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Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
City of New York
Long Island City, NY
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Dear Tsee,

We have a Global Science Exchange session on Trends in Wastewater-Based Epidemiology: Current Uses and Future Opportunities. You can join us to learn about the latest research on the topic and further discussion. 
More info: https://sites.google.com/view/globalscienceexchange/gse 
Have a great weekend,
Nur H. Orak


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Nur Orak Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Marmara University Dept of Environmental Engineeri
Istanbul
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Original Message:
Sent: 02-06-2022 06:00 AM
From: Tsee Lee
Subject: Wastewater monitoring of COVID-19 variants and case loads

There's apparently a pandemic mystery in New York : Unknown coronavirus variants keep showing up in certain wastewater samples but never in human testing. It may not be easy to find the sources--the city has over 7,400 miles of sewer pipes, 135,000 catch basins, and 95 wastewater pumping stations.

It's a relatively new field in environmental engineering, this use of wastewater to track infectious diseases. The CDC has added a wastewater tracker for changes in case rates on its COVID site, although data collection is scant. Here is some background info on the effort.

Has anyone experience with this type of investigations? How easy do you think it will be to track down the source of the unknown variants?

P.S. I have been very fortunate with respect to the pandemic (2 cases among relatives), but I know many who got sick (my primary physician was one of the very first in the region to be hospitalized) and some separated by one degree who were less fortunate (a former colleague lost his wife early on when she caught the virus in the hospital after an organ transplant).

------------------------------
Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
City of New York
Long Island City, NY
------------------------------

Hi Tsee,

A colleague of mine shared this with me from the Philadelphia Water Department. Perhaps you will find it interesting as well. https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-wastewater-testing-philadelphia-cases-predictions-20220412.html

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Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 02-06-2022 06:00 AM
From: Tsee Lee
Subject: Wastewater monitoring of COVID-19 variants and case loads

There's apparently a pandemic mystery in New York : Unknown coronavirus variants keep showing up in certain wastewater samples but never in human testing. It may not be easy to find the sources--the city has over 7,400 miles of sewer pipes, 135,000 catch basins, and 95 wastewater pumping stations.

It's a relatively new field in environmental engineering, this use of wastewater to track infectious diseases. The CDC has added a wastewater tracker for changes in case rates on its COVID site, although data collection is scant. Here is some background info on the effort.

Has anyone experience with this type of investigations? How easy do you think it will be to track down the source of the unknown variants?

P.S. I have been very fortunate with respect to the pandemic (2 cases among relatives), but I know many who got sick (my primary physician was one of the very first in the region to be hospitalized) and some separated by one degree who were less fortunate (a former colleague lost his wife early on when she caught the virus in the hospital after an organ transplant).

------------------------------
Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
City of New York
Long Island City, NY
------------------------------

Thank you for the informative article, Chris. It appears that wastewater results are not necessarily a leading indicator, and vary depending on vaccination rates, how variants shed, and the progression to disease of a variant.

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Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
United States
New York, NY
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 05-16-2022 10:29 AM
From: Christopher Seigel
Subject: Wastewater monitoring of COVID-19 variants and case loads

Hi Tsee,

A colleague of mine shared this with me from the Philadelphia Water Department. Perhaps you will find it interesting as well. https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-wastewater-testing-philadelphia-cases-predictions-20220412.html

------------------------------
Christopher Seigel P.E., M.ASCE
Civil Engineer

Original Message:
Sent: 02-06-2022 06:00 AM
From: Tsee Lee
Subject: Wastewater monitoring of COVID-19 variants and case loads

There's apparently a pandemic mystery in New York : Unknown coronavirus variants keep showing up in certain wastewater samples but never in human testing. It may not be easy to find the sources--the city has over 7,400 miles of sewer pipes, 135,000 catch basins, and 95 wastewater pumping stations.

It's a relatively new field in environmental engineering, this use of wastewater to track infectious diseases. The CDC has added a wastewater tracker for changes in case rates on its COVID site, although data collection is scant. Here is some background info on the effort.

Has anyone experience with this type of investigations? How easy do you think it will be to track down the source of the unknown variants?

P.S. I have been very fortunate with respect to the pandemic (2 cases among relatives), but I know many who got sick (my primary physician was one of the very first in the region to be hospitalized) and some separated by one degree who were less fortunate (a former colleague lost his wife early on when she caught the virus in the hospital after an organ transplant).

------------------------------
Tsee Lee, A.M.ASCE
City of New York
Long Island City, NY
------------------------------