Occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in Six Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants at the Early Stage of COVID-19 Pandemic in The United States
Samendra P. Sherchan, Shalina Shahin, Jeenal Patel, Lauren Ward, Sarmila Tandukar, Sital Uprety, Bradley W. Schmitz, Warish Ahmed, Stuart L. Simpson, Pradip Gyawali
Abstract
In this study, we investigated the occurrence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in primary influent (n = 42), secondary effluent (n = 24) and tertiary treated effluent (n = 34) collected from six wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs A–F) in Virginia (WWTP A), Florida (WWTPs B, C, and D), and Georgia (WWTPs E and F) in the United States during April–July 2020. Of the 100 wastewater samples analyzed, eight (19%) untreated wastewater samples collected from the primary influents contained SARS-CoV-2 RNA as measured by reverse transcriptase quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assays. SARS-CoV-2 RNA were detected in influent wastewater samples collected from WWTP A (Virginia), WWTPs E and F (Georgia) and WWTP D (Florida). Secondary and tertiary effluent samples were not positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA indicating the treatment processes in these WWTPs potentially removed SARS-CoV-2 RNA during the secondary and tertiary treatment processes. However, further studies are needed to understand the log removal values (LRVs) and transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 RNA through analyzing wastewater samples from a wider range of WWTPs.