San Diego County’s Department of Environmental Health Wednesday extended the existing water contact closure area at the Tijuana Slough and Imperial Beach shorelines north to include the Silver Strand shoreline.
Every day, millions of Americans could be flushing critical coronavirus data down the toilet.
With the nation growing ever more weary of sweeping stay-at-home orders and a worsening economy, some scientists say our poop could be the key to determining when a community might consider easing health restrictions.
From Stanford to the University of Arizona, from Australia to Paris, teams of researchers have been ramping up wastewater analyses to track the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Initial studies show that sewage monitoring, or “wastewater-based-epidemiology,” could not only tell us how much the virus might actually be spreading in a community — but also when the virus has finally gone away.
Wastewater in sewage systems could provide a quicker and earlier indication of the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the Covid-19 virus, claim scientists working with Northumbrian Water and global partners.
By now we’ve heard plenty about the difficulty of accessing widespread testing for the coronavirus. However, there is another approach for municipalities who want to know the presence and extent of the COVID-19 virus in their community…
It seems like the thing to do. You use a disinfectant wet wipe, and you toss it in the toilet. Right? That’s actually wrong. It’s an issue causing problems for wastewater treatment systems on the Central and South Coasts. People are using wet wipes in record numbers because of coronavirus. But, they can create problems for your sewer system, and for wastewater treatment facilities.
When it rains in Tijuana, it pours sewage. That’s been the reality for decades and recent storms hit the border area hard. It’s a reminder that while energy and attention have been focused on trying to rein in the coronavirus pandemic, other big problems remain.
How many people have been infected with the new coronavirus? A group of Bay Area researchers aims to find out—by tracking what’s in the local wastewater.
Sewage systems and toilets are backing up as consumers clean their homes with disinfectant wipes and turn to paper towels, napkins and baby wipes to cope with the lack of toilet paper.
San Diego’s border region is being pummeled every day by massive cross-border flows of sewage-tainted water.
Imperial Beach Mayor Serge Dedina looked at the river flowing through a South County valley on a recent morning.
“This should be dry — dry weather. This should be dry,” Dedina said as he looked at the flowing water. “There should be a pump station on.”
The water flowing in the Tijuana River Valley comes from Mexico and it is on its way to the ocean. On this day, 27 million gallons of sewage-tainted water, which also carries a slurry of toxic chemicals, runs untreated into the United States.
When lawmakers in the House of Representatives approved the Trump administration’s new trade deal with Mexico and Canada last month, they authorized $300 million to help fix failing sewer systems that send raw sewage and toxic pollution flowing into rivers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The decision could bring an infusion of funding to help clean up the badly polluted New River, Tijuana River, and other rivers that flow across the border into the U.S.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
