SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – South Burlington’s wastewater facility processes over 3 million gallons of sewage a day, but twice a week, they do something a little different.
In a laboratory attached to the plant, they test sewage for disease. The city works with the Department of Health to monitor COVID-19 and other viruses.
The testing was essential when the pandemic first started to watch for outbreaks and new variants, but now, there are changes in the levels of COVID-19.
“We’re getting back to where we were around July or so, so pretty low levels,” said Vermont Health Department epidemiologist John Davy, who has been following the pandemic since the beginning.
“What we’re not seeing yet with COVID is a true seasonal pattern,” said Davy. COVID-19 numbers are down and staying down.
Davy says he’s optimistic about COVID-19 numbers because of vaccination rates. So since it’s not as much of a worry, what does that mean for the future of the wastewater testing program?
“If there was a more something serious came along that could cause huge devastation to the public health and economy or what not we could potentially give an alert,” said Bob Fischer from the South Burlington Wastewater Facility.
Fischer says some viruses show up in waste days before people feel sick. The testing is ARPA-funded and has lots of potential for future pandemics, but its operation is on the line.
“This money will run out, and if they want to continue to do this at the national level, that’s up to Congress,” said Fischer.
Fischer also says he doesn’t know when the program will actually end, but with a new administration, time could be running out.