Home | Oregon Wastewater Surveillance | Oregon State University

To create a better future…we collect and measure human pathogen concentrations in wastewater throughout Oregon to provide leading edge public health information.

People infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other pathogens can shed them in their feces, even if they don’t have symptoms. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred the adoption and advancement of wastewater surveillance as a metric to measure the prevalence of disease in a community. The results (virus copies per person per day and variants) of the state-wide program, published weekly on the OHA Dashboard, are used to inform public health officials and decision-makers.

Featured Wastewater Utility:

Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission

Serves Eugene and Springfield by providing clean water & sustainable management practices
Wastewater Surveillance partner since September of 2020
Submitted over 500 filtered wastewater samples to the state-wide program to assess their community’s SARS-CoV-2 prevalence and circulating variants.

Community Partnership for Clean Water

“Participating in Wastewater Surveillance efforts strongly aligns with a primary mission of the MWMC to protect community health. Our partnership in the OSU Wastewater Surveillance Program has made it simple to ensure the results of our sampling efforts are used widely and cost-effectively to inform public health. We are excited about the future of Wastewater Surveillance as an effective tool to monitor pathogens of concern and improve community health.”

- Melanie Ryan, Laboratory and Field Monitoring Supervisor, City of Eugene