Seminole to test wastewater for virus

County to draw samples from two treatment facilities to check for COVID-19

Seminole County will soon follow Altamonte Springs in drawing sewage samples at two wastewater treatment facilities and having them tested for the virus that causes COVID-19.

County officials say testing waste matter flowing through sewage lines for the virus will give health and emergency officials additional data in determining how many people in that area of Seminole may have the virus, even if many of them are asymptomatic.

The testing, slated to start the week of March 7, also will help spot emerging outbreaks, officials said. The two plants — on Yankee Lake Road and Green Way Boulevard — on Seminole’s northwest side, service about 50,000 customers, including those living in the Heathrow and Alaqua communities.

“It’s important to do this sample because it gives our public health community time to plan for a possible increase in cases,” said Terry McCue, director of environmental services for Seminole County.

Last Spring, Altamonte Springs became one of the first municipalities in Florida to test its wastewater for the presence of the virus. The city expanded the testing in January for the presence of the highly contagious U.K. variants.

Altamonte Springs provides wastewater services to about 78,000 customers, including those in Longwood, Maitland, Eatonville and Winter Park. In January, the city reported that test results estimated 8,800 people served by the wastewater system were infected with COVID-19, including an estimated 387 with the U.K. variant.

“We don’t just have to wait for people to get tested to find if it’s prevalent in the community,” said Frank Martz, Altamonte Springs’ city manager.

Health officials say that people often shed traces of the virus through their waste days before they develop symptoms.

Similar wastewater testing also is underway at the University of Central Florida. At Rollins College in Winter Park, officials have been gathering samples for testing from the wastewater lines flowing out of campus dormitories since last fall.

Altamonte Springs will provide Seminole with test kits. Seminole officials will then pull samples on Sundays and Thursdays. The vials will be sent to a laboratory in Colorado also used by Altamonte. All the results will then be sent back to the city, which in turn will distribute the data to Seminole.

Altamonte Springs has been distributing the data to local hospitals and medical facilities.

Alan Harris, Seminole’s emergency management director, said the wastewater testing provides an epidemiological peek into the future.

“The way it has proven itself is that over the holidays we saw a peak [of COVID-19] in the waste stream, and that gave us a good indication what we were about to experience county wide and what the hospitals were gong to experience in the coming weeks,” Harris said, referring to the recent surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. “And we saw that the numbers did increase quite dramatically.”

Wastewater testing is not new. Nearly a decade ago, it was used in Israel to identify a polio outbreak. And in recent months, a growing number of local governments and universities have been conducting tests.

Seminole officials say they eventually hope to use the wastewater testing and technology to more accurately pinpoint surges of COVID cases within certain areas by testing the waste stream coming out of the county jail, assisted living facilities, and nursing homes.

However, health officials said wastewater should complement but not replace testing for COVID19.

The testing also could be used in the future for new pandemics or other viral outbreaks, other than COVID-19, said Nicole Guillet, Seminole’s county manager, at a recent commission meeting.

“We also think the data will be very useful after the event, to start correlating and to help develop opportunities for addressing — hopefully we won’t ever have to — but addressing pandemics or any other sort of crisis like this in the future,” Guillet said.