Page 15 - March-April2021 Vol 38 No 7
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who deliver vital day-to-day services in affordable way to address the COVID-19 endure months of isolation from family
Anderson and Roane Counties. challenge will help institutions navigate and friends…separations which can
the coming challenges. The human testing accelerate certain downward health spirals
“Geosyntec tests the wastewater for program is staggeringly expensive, and I and medical conditions.
the SARS-CoV-2-specific RNA, looks don’t see how it’s going to be sustainable
at concentrations per liter and issues for the length of time that we might have Kisco Senior Living is one group
the reports. I provide the city manager this virus around. We need a better way, working with Geosyntec to provide
with these weekly reports that can be and the wastewater analysis could be it,” early warnings for their elderly residents
shared with a number of different parties Launen said. “It’s really fantastic that you through pooled saliva surveillance and
such as first responders, fire and police are offering this expertise.” testing. The reports generated can lend
departments. We’re able to point out high guidance to their facilities in opening up
concentrations in certain geographic In fact, at Clemson University, the certain areas of comfort, as evidenced in
areas. On the Public Works side, we can school’s association with the wastewater a recent Town Hall at the Kisco facility
tell our folks where to be extra careful, detection firm has “filtered into” the way in Greensboro, N.C., where employee
to wear your masks and to follow CDC the city of Clemson handles public health Will Eubank said “it’s been really nice to
guidelines reducing exposure,” she said. recommendations to its citizens at large. have the opportunity to get back into the
Clemson’s Dr. David Freedman said if the dining room.”
In July 2020, Oak Ridge began using city takes action “as a consequence of the
the firm’s services on a not to exceed sewerage monitoring data, it will be hard “Trust and confidence (in the results)
contract basis, but she said “we may ask to come up with a better example of how have allowed us to do this….the dining
for additional funding. The information this can be helpful to other cities that are room has gotten busier and busier,” he
is so important. Our Public Works crews considering public health measures but said. Eubank said the impact on residents
deliver important services to the public, need the science to back it up.” gathering together again is gratifying…
and if our employees are getting sick, that ”seeing the smiles on their faces, hearing
affects how we provide those services.” “City Council just passed an ordinance how grateful they are to be with other
Working Hand in Hand with Colleges, requiring the wearing of masks in public folks and to get in there and enjoy a meal.
Universities places. The preamble to the ordinance Dining is a very communal experience.”
includes mention of our wastewater results.
Educational institutions such as Baylor The work is impactful,” Freedman said. Graves says he “sleeps really well at
University in Texas; Clemson University Senior Living Facilities See Benefits night when I think about what we do
in South Carolina and Keene State College for our nursing home clients.” And in
in New Hampshire are seeing both public In addition to cities and schools, a fact, an official with Kisco Senior Living
health and financial benefits in using the group of senior care facilities also are praised the firm for its results’ proactive
testing services. Dr. Loren Launen, Keene finding definite value in the merits of capabilities, saying “amazingly, because of
State biology professor, said wastewater the targeted testing and reports. One your work with pooled testing, we were
analysis made perfect sense for its campus. of the most fragile groups affected by able to identify an infected resident well
COVID-19, these men and women may before symptoms were present, which
“For schools like mine, having a more reduced the likelihood of spread through
early detection.”
Interrupting the Transmission Chain
The key takeaway here is interruption
of the transmission chain by detecting
people much earlier than they would have
been detected with clinical testing, “and
for far less cost,” Graves said.
After the pandemic “ends,” Graves said
his engineering and consulting firm will
likely “go back to doing what we do…
soil and groundwater remediation, and
other services involving our environment,
natural resources and civil infrastructure.
But we’ll be around to support efforts in
combating viral outbreak, because the
world is not done with pandemics.”
“The interesting thing about COVID is
that it won’t just go away. As it continues
to pass through the population, it may
well become a low-level endemic, much
like a cold. But then there will be “another
something,” another pandemic in the
coming years. There are just too many
people living too close together, stressing
the human ecosystem,” he said.
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