{"id":49431,"date":"2021-01-08T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-08T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/will-la-plata-county-start-tracking-covid-19-in-human-waste\/"},"modified":"2021-01-08T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-08T12:00:00","slug":"will-la-plata-county-start-tracking-covid-19-in-human-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/will-la-plata-county-start-tracking-covid-19-in-human-waste\/","title":{"rendered":"Will La Plata County start tracking COVID-19 in human waste?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Kurtis
Kurtis Martinez, operator with Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District\u2019s wastewater plant, takes a water sample Tuesday that will be tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, which is an indicator if COVID-19 is prevalent in the community. Public health officials are optimistic wastewater monitoring could provide early signs of community infection rates.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

What if La Plata County communities could detect the prevalence of COVID-19 in neighborhoods or communitywide before it shows up in test results?<\/p>\n

Colorado entities are testing a tool to do just that, using a communal sample that is already available in underground pipes: wastewater.<\/p>\n

Many people shed COVID-19 particles in their stool, even before they start having symptoms or if they are asymptomatic, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. In late December, the department launched a pilot project to track those particles.<\/p>\n

Front Range cities have already shared months of monitoring data, but the state\u2019s new dashboard doesn\u2019t show much from the Western Slope. In La Plata County, big questions loom for wastewater service providers and public health professionals interested in the idea.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the big questions is, what do we do with this data? Is it going to give us something actionable?\u201d said Jarrod Biggs, assistant utilities director for the city of Durango.<\/p>\n

\"Robert
Robert Ludwig, left, and Kurtis Martinez, both with Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District northeast of Durango, discuss the district&#x2019;s monitoring of COVID-19 levels in the subdivision&#x2019;s wastewater treatment plant Tuesday.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

To track COVID-19 in wastewater, operators draw samples for laboratory analysis. If COVID-19 is present, the samples will include particles called SARS-CoV-2 RNA.<\/p>\n

The amount of this RNA in wastewater has been tied to the prevalence of COVID-19 in a community in early research, according to the CDPHE COVID Wastewater Monitoring website.<\/a><\/p>\n

That means monitoring wastewater could give early warnings about an upcoming surge in cases, especially when analyzed alongside other types of COVID-19 data, said Brian Devine, interim environmental health director with San Juan Basin Public Health.<\/p>\n

Depending on where samples are taken, operators could see if COVID-19 is present systemwide, in specific neighborhoods or even dormitories, Devine said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a complementary process,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to replace any of the other monitoring programs that we have going on, but we\u2019re really excited to see how we can start using some of those data.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking action locally<\/div>\n

Public health agencies could use the information to increase or decrease resources when necessary. For example, the data could inform when, where and how SJBPH does its community testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we would ever use data at the utility scale to say, \u2018Actually things are getting much better, and we don\u2019t need public health practices anymore,\u2019\u201d Devine said.<\/p>\n

First, more wastewater operators would need to start sampling with greater frequency, he said.<\/p>\n

One subdivision has already started testing for COVID-19: Edgemont Ranch, a metropolitan district of about 1,200 to 1,500 people located 7 miles northeast of Durango.<\/p>\n

Edgemont has sampled its wastewater three times since early December. The results showed no COVID-19 particles immediately after Thanksgiving, then a peak in mid-December and a decrease in late December.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is helping us set our background and understand our risk,\u201d said Robert Ludwig, a wastewater operator with the district. \u201cIt basically tells us if we\u2019re getting worse or getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango considered the idea in the spring, but moved on when it seemed to be more costly than beneficial, Biggs said. City staff members are looking into the idea again.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all just exhausted with taking our temperatures every day and trying to keep our crews healthy,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can get another data point behind that, that\u2019d be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kurtis
Kurtis Martinez, operator with Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District&#x2019;s wastewater plant, takes a water sample Tuesday that will be tested for the prevalence of COVID-19.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Kurtis
Kurtis Martinez, operator with Edgemont Ranch Metropolitan District&#x2019;s wastewater plant, takes a water sample Tuesday that will be tested for the prevalence of COVID-19.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Enough bang for the buck?<\/div>\n

But wastewater monitoring is a new tool that requires more research and comes with limitations, according to CDPHE, Devine and Biggs.<\/p>\n

For example, it only monitors large segments of the population, not individuals who may be ill. About half of people won\u2019t shed RNA in their stool, and people might shed RNA for differing amounts of time. Movement in commuting or tourist populations might not be reflected in the monitoring data, according to CDPHE<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Moving populations and whether the data will offer enough \u201cbang for the buck,\u201d were the top questions for Biggs this week.<\/p>\n

Durango\u2019s population fluctuates by thousands of people every day because of commuting and tourism. Operators would have a hard time tracking the origin of the viral signals in the wastewater, Biggs said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would want a sample at the wastewater plant and then potentially go find five or 10 manholes to sample at to get some broader picture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Staff members could sample at different locations in the collection system, like a line with no hotels on it, but more sampling sites also increases the cost for the city, Biggs said.<\/p>\n

He also questioned what economic relief or public health steps would be triggered by rising or falling COVID-19 signals in the wastewater.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s still just data, so it has to be weighed and thought about,\u201d Biggs said. \u201cThe bigger that data set gets, I think we can figure out how to best use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Edgemont Ranch, it costs $320 to process the samples \u2013 which Ludwig said was worth it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just feel this information is valuable to us going into this wastewater plant build and understanding our risk,\u201d Ludwig said. \u201c(The community) can look at real COVID data for their subdivision. As long as we\u2019re trending downward, we\u2019re doing pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

smullane@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

launches wastewater monitoring effort<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,950,507,13,28,445,668,686,545],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-49431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-durango","tag-durango-city-officials","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-public-health","tag-san-juan-basin-health-department","tag-waste"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49431"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=49431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}