Kansas researchers find detectable levels of COVID-19 in wastewater treatment samples
Researchers have found that detectable levels of COVID-19 were discovered in samples taken from 10 Kansas wastewater plants, according to preliminary findings released this week.
The initial results come after the Kansas Department of Health and Environment joined the University of Kansas School of Engineering on the project to determine if genetic remnants of COVID-19 could be found in wastewater. Officials haven’t identified the locations of the plants.
While health officials say the risk of the virus being transmitted through sewerage systems is thought to be low, detecting COVID-19 in wastewater is indicative of the disease being present in the community, the state said in a news release announcing the study. Officials hope studying the wastewater could give local health officials an idea of how widespread the disease might be and could lead to more testing, “particularly in counties where positive cases have been low,” Tom Stiles, KDHE water bureau director, said in a statement.
Drinking water is not part of the study, the state noted. Conventional water treatment methods, in Kansas and elsewhere, that use filtration and disinfection inactivates the virus that causes COVID-19, according to state health officials and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Late in April, researchers collected samples from 12 wastewater plants. They took samples from large cities and small towns in five northeast Kansas counties.
To test the samples, the state said the genetic material can be “extracted from wastewater and matched against genetic markers keyed to COVID-19.”
Of the 12 wastewater plants that were tested, 10 were found to have “some indication of the genetic material,” KDHE said in a news release Thursday.
Hiawatha, one city that participated in the study, announced Wednesday that COVID-19 was detected in a sample of wastewater entering its plant. Though Hiawatha said it was not aware of any confirmed cases in its city, it stated it was “hopeful the precautions we have all been taking as a community have been helping deter the spread of COVID-19.”
In an email Friday morning, a spokeswoman for KDHE declined to release individual results but said communities sampled included those in Brown, Douglas, Miami, Franklin and Shawnee counties.
Officials caution the project is still in its preliminary stages, and the initial results are “too variable and uncertain to make actual estimates of the extent of infection in those communities.”
“The initial results do show genetic indications from COVID-19 in wastewater; however, at best, we are at the presence/absence stage of evaluation process,” Stiles said in a statement. “There is much more we need to refine in the methodology to assure quality control and that will start with further testing of samples.”
This story was originally published May 8, 2020 at 3:59 PM.
