Wastewater Monitoring for Public Health

Wastewater contains clues about the resurgence of diseases once thought to be eradicated, the evolution of new diseases, such as COVID-19, and its ever-changing variants, and even the prevalence of drug use.

Faculty members Alexandria “Ali” Boehm from Stanford School of Engineering and Marlene Wolfe (BA ’11, CEE postdoc ’21) of Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health will discuss how wastewater-based epidemiology may be useful for informing public health and local government response to viral diseases like COVID-19. Megan Plumlee (CEE MS ’04, PhD ’08), director of research at the Orange County Water District, will moderate and explore the benefits and challenges of this approach.