Twice a week at Dallas’ Central Wastewater Treatment Plant in east Oak Cliff, workers use an empty milk jug tied to a string to pull a 250-milliliter sample out of a pool of thick gray water. Two-thirds of Dallas’ waste comes through the plant, so the samples provide a small look at everyone’s, well, poop.
The sample is then sent by FedEx to a lab in Mississippi, where it is tested for levels of COVID-19 on the dime of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC has been testing wastewater for the virus since the early days of the pandemic, but Dallas only began participating in the national effort this month. Researchers at the CDC say testing the waste can help provide an early indicator for rising cases and potential new variants, and are trying to expand their monitoring program nationally.
Read more about the national effort for testing waste from our partners at The Dallas Morning News.
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