Award Abstract # 2029025
RAPID: Monitoring for SARS-CoV-2 in municipal wastewater and sewage to elucidate infection dynamics across major metropolitan areas of the United States

NSF Org: CBET
Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
Recipient: NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
Initial Amendment Date: May 12, 2020
Latest Amendment Date: May 12, 2020
Award Number: 2029025
Award Instrument: Standard Grant
Program Manager: Mamadou Diallo
CBET
 Division of Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems
ENG
 Directorate for Engineering
Start Date: May 15, 2020
End Date: April 30, 2021 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $200,000.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $200,000.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2020 = $200,000.00
History of Investigator:
  • Francis de los Reyes (Principal Investigator)
    fldelosr@ncsu.edu
  • Adam Smith (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Lauren Stadler (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Jeseth Delgado Vela (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Nadine Kotlarz (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: North Carolina State University
2601 WOLF VILLAGE WAY
RALEIGH
NC  US  27695-0001
(919)515-2444
Sponsor Congressional District: 02
Primary Place of Performance: North Carolina State University
Raleigh
NC  US  27695-7908
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
02
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): U3NVH931QJJ3
Parent UEI: U3NVH931QJJ3
NSF Program(s): EnvE-Environmental Engineering
Primary Program Source: 01002021DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 096Z, 7914
Program Element Code(s): 144000
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.041

ABSTRACT

The global COVID-19 pandemic has created major impacts to public health and the economy. Currently, there are over two million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, with nearly 700,000 cases in the United States. Limited testing capacity and asymptomatic infections have resulted in significant unknowns in the actual number of infections by SARS-CoV2 (the virus responsible for COVID-19). Therefore, alternative methods of tracking the SARS-CoV2 are urgently needed. The goal of this RAPID project monitor public health by surveilling SARS-CoV2 presence in wastewater in four cities in CA, NC, Washington DC, and TX. Samples will be gathered before, during, and after infection peaks in these four cities, creating a data collection essential to understanding the current pandemic. Coronavirus levels will be determined using methods that target specific parts of the virus. The wastewater data will be compared to data from the healthcare system to determine if testing wastewater can help predict COVID-19 presence in a community. Knowledge gained from this study will advance the understanding of how wastewater testing can be used to guide healthcare resources to individual communities, reducing long-term economic disruption of the larger community during future outbreaks.

Limited diagnostic testing and asymptomatic infections result in large uncertainty in the actual extent of SARS-CoV2 infections. Analysis of municipal wastewater is equivalent to analyzing a pooled sample from all community members for a community-scale measure of infection dynamics. A coordinated effort across four major geographically diverse metropolitan areas, Orange County, Raleigh, Washington, and DC, Houston will address knowledge gaps in the use of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool. Raw wastewater and primary solids will be collected from four municipal wastewater treatment plants throughout the infection period to quantify SARS-CoV2, seasonal influenza, and an enteric virus in the samples. Using identical experimental protocols and incorporating other viruses into this analysis will validate and expand the understanding of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool for various human viruses in addition to SARS-CoV2. The team has public health and wastewater treatment expertise to examine how wastewater data relates to clinical data. The results from this study will help to characterize the full potential of wastewater surveillance as a public health monitoring tool and help prepare public health officials for future outbreaks. Results and methods will be shared in publicly available using FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) protocols to assist the larger network of researchers studying SARS-CoV2 in wastewater.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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Al-Faliti, Mitham and Kotlarz, Nadine and McCall, Camille and Harris, Angela R. and Smith, Adam L. and Stadler, Lauren B. and de los Reyes, Francis L. and Delgado Vela, Jeseth "Comparing Rates of Change in SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater Load and Clinical Cases in 19 Sewersheds Across Four Major Metropolitan Areas in the United States" ACS ES&T Water , v.2 , 2022 https://doi.org/10.1021/acsestwater.2c00106 Citation Details
LaTurner, Zachary W. and Zong, David M. and Kalvapalle, Prashant and Gamas, Kiara Reyes and Terwilliger, Austen and Crosby, Tessa and Ali, Priyanka and Avadhanula, Vasanthi and Santos, Haroldo Hernandez and Weesner, Kyle and Hopkins, Loren and Piedra, Ped "Evaluating recovery, cost, and throughput of different concentration methods for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater-based epidemiology" Water Research , v.197 , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2021.117043 Citation Details
McClary-Gutierrez, Jill S. and Aanderud, Zachary T. and Al-faliti, Mitham and Duvallet, Claire and Gonzalez, Raul and Guzman, Joe and Holm, Rochelle H. and Jahne, Michael A. and Kantor, Rose S. and Katsivelis, Panagis and Kuhn, Katrin Gaardbo and Langan, "Standardizing data reporting in the research community to enhance the utility of open data for SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance" Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology , 2021 https://doi.org/10.1039/D1EW00235J Citation Details

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The project goal was to gain information about SARS-CoV-2 infection by monitoring municipal wastewater in four major metropolitan areas of the US: Washington, DC; Los Angeles, CA; Houston, TX; and Raleigh, NC. In this coordinated effort, we: 1) collected raw wastewater and/or primary solids from municipal wastewater treatment plants, capturing time periods before, during and after peak infection; 2) quantified SARS-CoV-2 markers in samples, and 3) examined associations between wastewater data and clinical infection data. We sampled over 48 treatment plants in these metropolitan areas ranging in populations served between 2700 residents to 4,000,000 residents. In total, the population contributing wastewater to these facilities was over 15 million. The team collected and analyzed samples from April 2020 to December 2020 and developed and optimized methods for sample concentration, extraction of RNA, and PCR methods for quantifying various markers for SARS-CoV-2. The signals were then compared to positive cases, positivity rates, and COVID-like illness (CLI) in the specific sewershed areas. Positive correlations were found between wastewater and case data, and the rates of change in both sets of data across the four metropolitan areas. However, there are area-specific differences, and we are exploring possible reasons for these differences, which may shed light on how wastewater surveillance can be used across different sewersheds of varying characteristics (population served, sewer densities, COVID testing penetration, etc.). A workshop between stakeholders (local public health officials, wastewater personnel) was also conducted and led to insights on how data should be presented to policymakers and the public. We shared these insights at an NSF RCN workshop on stakeholder engagement and received much positive feedback. We participated in the Association of Public Health Laboratories annual conference and gave a seminar on establishing a wastewater monitoring program. Partnerships with state DHHS (e.g., North Carolina DHHS) and city (e.g., Houston) officials were developed and led to: 1) assisting in setting up state-wide dashboards (e.g., COVID in wastewater websites in NC); 2) updating and informing state policy-makers on COVID trends (e.g., DHHS epidemiologists and the NC DHHS Secretary); 3) setting up a state-wide research network for continued and ongoing monitoring; 4) establishment of a city-wide wastewater surveillance program in Houston, TX that is used to inform public health action in real-time by the Houston Health Department. The RAPID grant led to new funding on wastewater surveillance for the co-PIs, including funding from the City of Houston, the NC Policy Collaboratory, the NSF, the Georgetown-Howard Center for Clinical and Translational Studies, and the CDC. Results from the project have been disseminated in conference presentations, seminars, workshops, and manuscripts (published, submitted, and in preparation). Graduate and undergraduate students and postdocs were involved in the study. All the co-PIs have emerged to become among the young leaders in wastewater-based epidemiology and are continuing to explore the leading-edge in this area.


Last Modified: 09/01/2021
Modified by: Francis L De Los Reyes Iii

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