Samples of Iowa wastewater will be taken as part of a national study on the presence of coronavirus. | Pixabay
Samples of Iowa wastewater will be taken as part of a national study on the presence of coronavirus. | Pixabay
Officials of the Des Moines Metropolitan Wastewater Reclamation Authority announced on July 26 that the agency is participating in a national study with other water authorities for the presence of coronavirus and its delta variant in the testing of wastewater samples across the country.
The reclamation authority treats, cleans and cycles back wastewater into the Des Moines River from 17 Iowa communities comprising over 500,000 residents, according to a City of Des Moines website.
Testing will take place over the coming nine weeks and samples of Iowa wastewater will be sent to a national lab in a joint project conducted by the U.S. Deptartment of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control, the National Institute of Health and Biobot Analytics.
The Des Moines city website said the purpose of the project is to determine the future course of the COVID-19 pandemic as testing for the virus decreases, vaccinations increase and communities reopen. The information will also provide clues to the emergence of coronavirus variants like the more infectious and dangerous delta strain.
“We’ll take samples and send them two to three times a week," Plant Director Scott Hutchens said, according to Radio Iowa. "We take our influent wastewater and it gets tested for the presence of COVID-19 and any variants that might be in that. ...
"You know when you shower, when you go to the bathroom and flush your toilet — that’s coming through the sewer system and pipelines and interceptor sewers here to the treatment plant. ... They can do an analysis to determine how rampant COVID-19 is in the community — or how well the vaccination process is going."
A website set up by the Iowa Deptartment of Public Health reported 407,838 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus as of July 27, with 5,160 cases in Des Moines County.
The Associated Press said this is the first time samples are being taken from Iowa residents to test for coronavirus. In the past water samples have been taken to test for opioid drug use and for other information.
Alerts Sign-up