3/23/2020
COVID-19: The Latest Public Health Enemy #1

We at NEBRA are safe and staying safe from COVID-19 so that we can help our members get through this very serious public health crisis. As a profession, we have dealt with many serious emergencies in the past, including pandemics. It’s a time to rely on our professional training, resources, and colleagues. Please know that NEBRA is just a call or an email away, if you need us for anything.

We know our operator members know what to do, which is what they always do:

  • Use personal protective equipment and standard sanitation/disinfection practices.

  • Wash hands regularly, stay 6 feet away from others, stay home if sick, and follow other recommendations being publicized nationwide.

  • It is essential that you work safely and remain healthy.

It is also important to stay informed.

NEBRA’s website homepage now gives you one-click access to the Water Environment Federation (WEF)’s Current Priority: Coronavirus page (see WEF blog, with link). It’s the resource we currently recommend.

For NEBRA members, it may be a good time to review the research abstracts from this past July and the summary -- Perspectives on Pandemics -- by Sally Brown, Ph.D. (University of Washington) (click to https://www.nebiosolids.org/nebra-members, enter password, and look down the right side for July 2019). And look for a new set of abstracts on this topic coming to your inbox soon. NEBRA has gotten a question from one of our members about the viability of COVID-19 in biosolids products even though the member had done a test for it and found nothing. We at NEBRA doubt it will be detected in finished biosolids products – no more of a concern than other pathogens in Class B biosolids and likely no concern at all in Class A products -- but the general public doesn’t know that. Again, education remains critical as the farming season is quickly approaching.

The Virginia Biosolids Council has posted some good information and resources on COVID-19 related to wastewater processed and biosolids (http://www.virginiabiosolids.com/covid-19/). One of the papers Dr. Brown points to by Ian Pepper and Chuck Gerba (University of Arizona), looked at the survival of coronaviruses in water and wastewater. You can read the University’s press release and download a copy of the paper at the bottom of the page.

If you don’t have time to read a paper, how about listening to a recent podcast from WEF, Words on Water #128: Coronavirus and Water Treatment featuring Dr. Rasha Maal-Bared, Senior Microbiologist at EPCOR, and Scott Schaefer, Wastewater Practice Leader at AE2S and Chair of WEF’s Disinfection & Public Health Committee.

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Spread the word: nothing but pee, poo, & paper in toilets!
There may be many opportunities to use the COVID-19 crisis as a teaching moment for our customers. Clean water professionals are on the front line in combatting pandemics. Recall we beat back cholera a hundred years ago, protecting public health by building, operating and maintaining the sanitary systems that a lot of people now take for granted. Nowhere is that clearer than in what we see happening as a result of the head-scratching toilet paper hoarding going on despite constant “demand.” The unfortunate result of the hoarding seems to be that people unable to find it on store shelves are resorting to alternatives (e.g. paper towels, tissues, rags). Those, combined with sanitary wipes and other disinfection products being used increasingly, are causing ragging and blockage issues in pumps and collection systems all across the country.

NEBRAMail has learned that this is going on in our region as well. One community in Vermont, the Town of South Windsor, reported 4 of its 11 pump stations were impacted by rags, putting workers responsible for keeping those stations operating at risk from unnecessary exposures to COVID-19 and other pathogens in raw sewage.

We observed good collaboration between facility operators and regulators in Vermont and other states. In Rhode Island, the state Department of Environmental Management assisted operators with a series of press releases. Operators in New Hampshire got the attention of the Union Leader, there was coverage in the Hartford Courant, and even smaller newspapers in Maine – like the Kennebec Journal -- were doing their part to spread warnings from operators. In Massachusetts, MassDEP Commissioner Martin Suuberg will host a conference call with operators to find out about their specific concerns and resources needed related to COVID-19.

There is a lot of press around the issue of wipes right now, but we obviously have a lot more work to do in educating everyone who flushes a toilet. We know, of course, that many wipes may be labeled “flushable,” but they are not and cause major headaches for operations. The public needs to continue to get this important message, because we are seeing them in record numbers, no thanks to COVID-19.

These are unprecedented, almost surreal times we are living through. The status of COVID-19 is rapidly evolving in the United States and Canada. Stay informed. Stay in touch.

And let us know if there’s anything we can do to help.