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A New Kind of College Exam: UCSD is Testing Sewage for COVID-19

/in , , /by /Voice of San Diego by Randy Dotinga

Turds tell tales, and UC San Diego is listening.

As the beginning of the school year nears, the university is preparing to ramp up its testing of sewage for the coronavirus. The goal: Monitor the progress of the pandemic on campus and catch outbreaks before it’s too late to control them. Along those lines, UCSD on Saturday sent out its first campus-wide email alert about the detection of the virus in sewage from one of its seven colleges.

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EPA Announces Short-Term Projects to Plug Border Sewage Flow

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Bianca Bruno

Emphasizing the “unprecedented” bipartisan cooperation between local and state governments, Border Patrol and the International Boundary & Water Commission, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced short-term projects Wednesday to plug the international sewage flow across the U.S.-Mexico border.

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EPA Administrator Announces Projects to Address Sewage Spills at Border, An End to South Bay Beach Closures

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union Tribuneby Andrew Dyer

Federal investments in Tijuana River Valley infrastructure to address ongoing problems with sewage runoff could mean an end to beach closures that have plagued the South Bay in recent years, officials announced today in San Diego.

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Two Projects Promise Cross-Border Sewage Relief for South Bay Region

/in , /by /KPBS San Diegoby Erik Anderson

The Environmental Protection Agency is spending $25 million on two projects to help stop the flow of cross border sewage and trash.

EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler met with state and local officials Wednesday to discuss the persistent problem and to announce two short-term solutions would move ahead.

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Looking to Reopen, Colleges Become Labs for Coronavirus Tests and Tracking Apps

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Matt Richtel

Thousands of students returning to the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York this month are being asked to wear masks in public, register their health status online each day and electronically log classroom visits for contact tracing if a coronavirus outbreak occurs. But the most novel effort at the school to measure and limit virus spread will require little effort and come quite naturally.

Students need only use the bathroom.

At more than 15 dormitories and on-campus apartment buildings, sewage is being tested twice weekly for genetic evidence of virus shed in feces. This provides a kind of early-warning system of an outbreak, limiting the need to test every student for Covid-19. If the disease is found in sewage, individual tests can be administered to identify the source.

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Napa Sanitation District Harvests Napa’s Sewage Sludge for Fertilizer

/in , /by /Napa Valley Registerby Barry Eberling

Dredging is common in navigable waterways, but the project underway at the Napa Sanitation District property in southern Napa County is a little bit different.

The dredging is taking place in a vast sewage treatment pond. And the material being removed is biosolids, which is another way of saying sewage sludge.

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Sewage Spill Near Torrey Pines Closes Part of State Beach

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Christine Huard

The county Department of Environmental Health issued a water contact closure for the northern boundary of Torrey Pines State Beach, north of Carmel Valley Road in the city of Del Mar, due to a sewage spill. The sewage spill has been contained, but an estimated release of 1,800 gallons of effluent entered the storm drain, resulting in potential impacts to beach water quality, according to the DEH.

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House Republicans Push Using Wastewater to Track COVID-19

/in , , /by /E&E News by Hannah Northey
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are probing the extent to which EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are using wastewater to track the spread of the coronavirus.
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San Diego Homes Improperly Charged

/in , /by /Water & Wastes Digestby Cristina Tuser

San Diego homes and businesses have been improperly charged for a program that keeps toxic sewer water from being discharged into the Pacific Ocean.

A new report from Interim City Auditor Kyle Elser said the city failed to charge Industrial Wastewater Control Program permit holders enough to cover the costs of the program.

According to the City Auditor’s Office, many of the fees charged to industrial polluters have not been adjusted since 1984. The Public Utilities Department agreed to adjust the fees last year, but failed to do so, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

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How LA’s Sewers Could Be an Early Warning System for Coronavirus Outbreaks

/in , , /by /NBC4 Los Angelesby Carolyn Johnson and Maya MacGregor

A study at USC is relying on the flush of a toilet for clues to coronavirus outbreaks.

Dr. Adam Smith, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at USC, is a part of a team of scientists across the country who are sifting through data from the bowels of the sewer system.  The team consists of researchers from USC, Howard University, North Carolina State University and Rice University.

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