Westchester County COVID-19 Wastewater Treatment Study Shows Promising Trends Following Omicron Variant

Trends from a study at all seven Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plants continue to collectively show significant decreases in detection levels

As of January 2022, trends from a nearly one-and-a-half year COVID-19 study at all seven Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plants continue to show decreasing levels. This follows trends of active cases in the County as the spread of the Omicron variant wanes.

Latimer said: “As we move past the Omicron variant spike of active COVID-19 cases, these trends are a welcome sign. Data and information are the tools that help guide the decisions of my Administration and I commend the work of the Department of Environmental Facilities on their partnership and efforts on this study.”

SARS-CoV-2 RNA laboratory results from the 24-hour composite collected on January 16, while still showing the presence of COVID-19 in each of the seven sewer sheds, show that those levels in each of the seven sewer sheds have decreased significantly. The decreased levels of copies per capita in all of the sewer sheds is indicating a continued leveling off and a definitive downturn from the previous spike.

Treatment Facility

Copies/L

Copies/capita

Blind Brook

115,433

45.6

Mamaroneck

280,365

156

New Rochelle

427,593

222

Ossining

99,356

39.1

Peekskill

315,075

158

Port Chester

332,872

143

Yonkers-Joint

112,484

61.7

Since early in the pandemic, the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities (DEF) has partnered with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP) to study the wastewater at County treatment plants to better understand the impact of COVID-19 on large urban areas.

DEF Commissioner Vincent Kopicki said: “Our Department has had a great working relationship with NYCDEP on this study to help find answers to the pandemic and allowing us to better serve the public.

The relationship between Westchester County and NYCDEP is a true partnership where both organizations benefit.  The County’s Information Technology department developed the software dashboard to organize and display the results of the sampling, while the Westchester County Department of Environmental Facilities takes the weekly samples from our wastewater treatment facilities. NYCDEP performs the lab analysis for all samples.  All of this work is being performed at no additional cost to the Westchester County sewer-shed rate payers.