Survey Raw Responses: Challenges with Respect to Wastewater

APPA > Survey Raw Responses: Challenges with Respect to Wastewater

Other than budgeting for this expense, pulling samples from a manhole in winter weather doesn’t look to be a lot of fun.  Turnaround time for lab results has been consistent at 3-4 business days.  It would be nice if that were two days.

Info NA.

None.

Not aware of any.

None at this time.

We are utilizing this on a limited basis. The number that is in the pool to test and accuracy of the source.

I don’t know.

The number of buildings.

A couple of the locations are in manholes that are in major roadways.  As such, we bring two staff in early (on OT) to sample these locations before traffic picks up.  We’ve also had some recent cases of vandalism at the sampling stations.

So far, we have three (3) on campus sites (dorms) that are being tested.

Campus is doing this; I am not a part of this process and cannot speak to it.

Data being collected doesn’t pinpoint specific floor (or sometimes even a specific building) because multiple buildings tie into the same line.

None.

Staffing to perform at the rate desired.

Sampling is time consuming.

The infrastructure (sewer lines and clean outs) were not set up for such testing so we had to get creative on some buildings to be able to get samples.

The ability to take samples for some individual buildings. It is much easier to collect samples from a manhole where buildings combine than from a clean out for an individual building. Not enough auto-samplers and manual single samples can miss the virus.

Resources necessary to test additional facilities and track a larger segment of the campus population.

The correlation of the Waste Water signals with actual testing of individuals in that area.

Failure rate, continuing viral load in wastewater after first detection creates false positives. Limited resources to collect and analyze.

Need to take samples at multiple locations.

Turnaround timing, from sample collection to testing results.  Limitations to good access points for sampling.  One portable composite sampler.

Quickly analyzing the results and following up on positive results.

Buy-in for the process.

UNC is a huge school and budget has taken a big hit.

Working with the local municipality.

Researchers are providing the testing.  We don’t currently have correct testing devices in place in all locations.

None at the moment.  Our lead strategy is saliva sampling using pooled samples.

We are too big for an effective program.

It is good for foreshadowing an outbreak, but once an outbreak occurs it is no longer useful since individuals who have had the virus continue to shed the virus long after they have recovered creating a much more difficult analysis.

None

We did this last semester and because our infection rate was so low, wastewater didn’t capture much until infection rates in the area started to increase.  Our local hospital saw a correlation between the wastewater spikes and positive cases they were reporting.

Nothing – we were very successful with our testing program. Covered at least 80% of our student population with testing every other day through the semester. It caught at least 60% of all of our covid cases this fall. It was expensive ~$400K total.

None

Exposure of waste treatment operators.