Sewerage Authority To Drop Covid Waste Test

A program run by the Sewerage Authority to try to track Covid outbreaks in the township will end in the next several weeks.

Sewerage Authority executive director Joe Danielsen told the authority’s Board of Commissioners on November 1 that the program did not produce any meaningful results.

The program, similar to others in larger cities, entailed testing township wastewater for remnants of the Covid virus.

The tests in September expanded to Monkey pox.

The program was originally to end in September, but Danielsen told the Commissioners in September that it had been extended.

But at the November meeting, Danielsen said the program would end.

“It was an interesting exercise,” he said.

Monkey pox did show up in the samples, but they were not consistent, he said.

“It would show up one week, then disappear in subsequent weeks,” he said. “There was no trend in it at all.”

“After discussing this with some professionals, we found the Covid data is not consistent enough to be useful, and the Monkey pox data was never useful,” he said. “We’re not going to extend that program any longer.”

Danielsen said the program, which he estimated cost about $15,000, would end in the next several weeks.

Your Thoughts

comments