The EU publishes monthly bulletins around DNA surveillance programs.
"The bulletin summarise the reported results and findings from European national wastewater surveillance programmes. It also informs about the local surveillance projects and non-EU countries participating as observers"
https://wastewater-observatory.jrc.ec.europa.eu/#/bulletin
My university recently discovered a covid outbreak at my freshman dorm by testing the wastewater; that was the first I heard about the technique. It's especially effective for this use case: "Traces of SARS-CoV-2 can show up in an infected person’s feces days before any symptoms are detected, and even when a person ultimately shows no symptoms at all." [1]
SF has a combined sewer system, but it has zero farms. One question is whether it was more likely to be a signal from wild birds (into the runoff system) than humans (into the sewer.)
There's very little rain in the summer months, the average for July rounds off to 0.0in. I don't remember if there was any significant rain in May or June, but I'd be surprised if it was more than 1-5% of the total. I guess there's lawn irrigation, though.
There are three sewersheds [1] but we don't know which one the signal was detected in (or do we?) If it was the Northpoint one (~ NE quadrant) there aren't as many lawns there. There are a few small parks, street cleaning and whatnot.
Also, drugs can be used to track wastewater. For example, the quantity of wastewater flowing into a river can be estimated by measuring caffeine in the river's water.
>> which has cost $10- to $15-million a year since it was launched in 2020
Great link. Perhaps their decision makes sense given the cost. I had no idea that people were running around with fishing rods and tampons to do this. That is hilarious!
