Our wastewater system was one of the earliest systems to have covid testing. We get weekly reports of detected levels.
There are some HUGE problems with using these numbers to make predictions. For example, every system has a different level of groundwater infiltration. This dilutes the waste stream and will result in lower numbers when compared similar systems with less infiltration. Another issue is the length of time the wastewater spends traveling through the system. This varies wildly from system to system.
Wastewater covid testing, at this point, is nothing more than pure research. It is interesting data, and will be valuable some day, but for now, the value is very limited.
Testing on an airline is a far more controlled setting and values are more easily compared to each other.
michimac t1_j29300z wrote
Reply to comment by KerPop42 in Exclusive: U.S. considers airline wastewater testing as COVID surges in China by Smithy2232
Our wastewater system was one of the earliest systems to have covid testing. We get weekly reports of detected levels.
There are some HUGE problems with using these numbers to make predictions. For example, every system has a different level of groundwater infiltration. This dilutes the waste stream and will result in lower numbers when compared similar systems with less infiltration. Another issue is the length of time the wastewater spends traveling through the system. This varies wildly from system to system.
Wastewater covid testing, at this point, is nothing more than pure research. It is interesting data, and will be valuable some day, but for now, the value is very limited.
Testing on an airline is a far more controlled setting and values are more easily compared to each other.