SOUTH ABINGTON TOWNSHIP — Since December 2022, Abington Regional Wastewater Authority (ARWA) has been checking the influent waste stream for genomic copies of SARS/COVID-19. This testing is for the wastewaters of the three municipalities that belong to ARWA – South Abington Township, Clarks Summit and Clarks Green.
Every hour of every day, ARWA employees collect 250 milliliters of wastewater for it to get tested. Lauren Elliott, director of operations, does this task every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
“We pour that mix of sample off the next day,” said Lauren Elliott, director of operations at ARWA.
Tubes that are measured to be 50 milliliters become filled with the sample to be shipped inside boxes with two ice packs and sent to Biobot Analytics. This wastewater epidemiological company, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, tracks different versions of COVID-19 such as Delta and Omicron.
“(Biobot) will be able to tell if it’s mutating into another type of virus,” said Elliott.
ARWA then sends the returned results to the CDC.
“It’s a benefit to our community to be tracking and monitoring the community’s health through the testing,” said Elliott.
Currently, the wastewaters are safe from COVID.
