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As of January 1, 2023 wastewater surveillance for SARS‑CoV‑2 in Athens-Clarke County has been moved to the GA Department of Public Health and CDC monitoring programs. Data for Athens-Clarke county will continue to be collected weekly and will be available at the DPH website and the CDC website. We would like to thank everyone who has followed our data collection over the past three years and all who have contributed to success of this program. All data/figures posted to this page will remain available online as an archival reference. A direct link to this page can be found at our Lab’s Github page and all data/code can be found in our GitHub repository. For further inquiries, our lab can be reached directly via email at .

This dashboard provides weekly updates of SARS‑CoV‑2 (the virus that causes COVID‑19) levels in wastewater for Athens-Clarke County (ACC). Wastewater sampling can detect viruses that may be shed in feces from infected people within an entire community, including those that are presymptomatic and asymptomatic. This offers a method of estimating trends in community-scale circulation of COVID‑19 that does not rely on clinical or surveillance testing of individuals. Although we cannot currently use wastewater-based testing to estimate a specific number of people infected in a community, it can be used to understand trends and to anticipate potential increases in cases.

Navigating this site:
• Data Trends: Total viral load and trend analysis for the combined ACC area
• Prior Six Weeks: Total viral load measures for the most recent six weeks of sampling
• Individual Plants: Viral load and trend analysis for each plant and associated service area
• All Data: Concentration of SARS‑CoV‑2 gene targets by date and treatment plant
• Research Overview: Details on methods and approach

Prior Six Weeks

Based on the prior two weeks, the SARS‑CoV‑2 viral load in Athens-Clarke county is steady.

Please Note.
In effort to better visualize the SARS‑CoV‑2 data trends more clearly, the y-axis of this figure uses a linear scale instead of a logarithmic scale. This differs from the y-axis scale on the data trends tab of this website.

Individual Plants

Three plants service the Athens-Clarke County region. WRF A serves the largest portion of the community (including all of UGA main campus and downtown Athens), followed by WRF B (including areas west of Milledge Ave.), and WRF C (including Athens Eastside). Total capacity at WRF C is substantially smaller than the other two plants; this plant also receives periodic waste from pumped septic system and ‘port-o-potties’, which may lead to increased variability over time. Load and trends over time are shown for each service area. Trend analyses follow the same procedure as noted in ‘Data Trends’ tab.

Sewershed Map

Sewershed map of Athens-Clarke County

Sewershed map of Athens-Clarke County

WRF A

WRF B

WRF C

All Data

This chart provides the concentration for SARS‑CoV‑2 at each of three plants in Athens-Clarke County for each sampling period. Symbols represent the mean concentration for the two viral gene targets at each of the three plants. Therefore, each sampling date includes six data points (2 gene targets x 3 plants).

Samples are collected once weekly as a 24-hour composite sample at each plant. We measure the virus by detecting two genes specific to SARS‑CoV‑2, the N1 and N2 nucleocapsid genes, using RT-qPCR. The N1 and N2 gene targets are measured and reported as a concentration, in number of gene copies per liter of wastewater for each plant. The theoretical Limit of Detection (LOD) is noted with a dashed line.

The daily number of newly reported COVID‑19 cases in Athens-Clarke County (purple bars) appear alongside the 7-day moving average of new cases (yellow line).

Research Overview

Purpose

Wastewater-based surveillance is an emerging tool for monitoring disease outbreaks. Coupled with clinical surveillance, wastewater surveillance can be used to help understand trends in viruses circulating within local population.

To better understand the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID‑19) on a local level, we are monitoring wastewater samples from water reclamation facilities in Athens, GA. Wastewater samples are collected weekly and tested to detect the disease-causing virus, SARS‑CoV‑2.

Each sample is a composite of the wastewater received by the water reclamation facility in a single 24-hour period. By examining these samples, we are capturing a snapshot into the health of the entire community that contributes to the sewershed. This wastewater-based research provides a new approach to epidemiology; sewage surveillance may be used to help understand potential burden of disease at a community-scale and trends in viral prevalence (indicating shifts in transmission), without extensive clinical sampling. These data should be considered complementary to on-going clinical testing.

We are sharing here some of the preliminary results of our wastewater monitoring program. Our objective is to critically examine the use of SARS‑CoV‑2 wastewater-based epidemiology for the detection and surveillance of SARS‑CoV‑2 in our local community.

We are developing and evaluating our methods in real-time. We will share with you our weekly results and newest developments. This data is intended to complement clinical-based COVID‑19 surveillance data, that will together, inform public health decisions.

To learn more about national surviellence efforts, using wastewater-based epidemiology, please visit the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS). For a global summary of wastewater based testing efforts currently underway, please see the UC Merced Dashboard.

Methods

Since May 2020, sewage samples have been collected weekly from the three water reclamation facilities (WRFs) that serve Athens-Clarke County. Samples are collected from a 24-hour composite of the influent wastewater received by each WRF.

Samples are processed by the Lipp Laboratory at the University of Georgia (Department of Environmental Health Science) to detect and measure the abundance of SARS‑CoV‑2 virus in wastewater.

Viral RNA, the genetic material of the SARS‑CoV‑2 virus, is extracted from each sample using the QIAmp Viral RNA Mini Kit.

The viral RNA is then measured using Real-Time RT-PCR Assays, following the CDC’s test protocol for the N1 and N2 SARS‑CoV‑2 nucleocapsid genes. Note, on 7/19/2021 we moved our analyses to a new qPCR machine which has resulted in improved sample precision from this date onward.

The N1 and N2 gene targets are measured and reported as a concentration per liter of wastewater (shown in ‘All Data’). N1 and N2 concentrations are then averaged and multiplied by the incoming flow at each plant to determine a total viral load per sampling day.

Reported case data for COVID-19 has been collected from Georgia’s Department of Public Health and summarized by Mark Ebell, MD, MS here.

A more detailed explanation of the research methods can be found here.

About

Monitoring is conducted through partnership between Athens-Clarke County Utilities, the Lipp Laboratory in the Department of Environmental Health Science, and the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia.

Team

Dr. Erin Lipp

Dr. Megan Lott

William A. Norfolk, PhD Student

Megan Robertson, PhD Student

Leah Lariscy, PhD Student

Taylor Maddalene, PhD Student

Kelly Fry, MPH Student

Amelia Foley, BS Student

Lily V. Metsker, BS Student

Carolina M. Declet, BS Student

Breanna Timani, BS Student

Abby Hoffman, BS Student

For more information about our team and other ongoing research please visit the Lipp Laboratory website.

How to Cite
Lipp EK, Lott M, Norfolk WA, Lariscy L, Metsker LV, Foley A, Robertson M, Declet CM, Fry K, Maddalene T, Timani B, and Hoffman A. 2020. Wastewater Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in Athens, GA. COVID-19 Portal. Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseases. https://www.covid19.uga.edu/wastewater-athens.html.

Contact
Lipp Laboratory –