Innovation

New Approach to an Old Method

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS created havoc across many segmentsof society. Its impacts have been far-reaching and resulted in the need to look at news ways of doing things. It has been the impetus for innovation. One such project underway in Winnipeg involves developing a wastewater surveillance system.

“Wastewater surveillance of infectious diseases is an old method of monitoring disease,” says Qiuyan Yuan, assistant professor of civil engineering at the Price Faculty of Engineering. “When the pandemic began, researchers in other parts of the world began studying wastewater to determine if SAR-CoV-2 was present and a useful tool for monitoring the severity of an outbreak. In some cities they detected the virus before the first symptomatic cases were reported.”

Yuan is undertaking her own research working with microbiologist Miguel Uyaguari, PhD student Kadir Yanac and City of Winnipeg wastewater engineer Michelle Paetkau - to develop a monitoring system to detect COVID-19 infection in wastewater. Their project will form the basis for occupational safety and health regulation for mitigating health risks to workers in sewage treatment plants. They received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Alliance COVID-19 grant program which is intended to stimulate collaborations between university-based researchers and the public and not-for-profit sectors or industry, to find

Winnipeg treats 270,000 m3 daily (metres cubed; 1 cubic metre is 1,000 litres)

20% at the South End Sewage Treatment Plant - using a high purity oxygen system with upgrades underway to convert it to a biological nutrient removal system

10% at the West End Sewage Treatment Plant – using a biological nutrient removal system solutions to pandemic-related research and technical challenges.

60% at the North End Sewage Treatment Plant - using a high purity oxygen system

Toronto treats 1,500,000 m3 daily

Since the spring of 2020, wastewater samples from the inlets of the wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) were collected to monitor SARS-CoV-2. Preliminary results show that when the number of daily cases were low (less than 20), it was not detected in any samples. When the number of daily cases were higher than 20 it was detected in all samples from the three WWTPs.

“This showed that COVID-19 has spread all over the city,” says Yuan. “This allows us to use this data to develop a wastewater surveillance tool by establishing a correlation between number of cases, average amount of virus excreted by infected people and the virus concentration in the wastewater.”

When the pandemic began, researchers in other parts of the world began studying wastewater to determine if SAR-CoV-2 was present and a useful tool for monitoring the severity of an outbreak. In some cities they detected the virus before the first symptomatic cases were reported.