ASCE has honored the writing team of Brijen Miyani, Xavier Fonoll, John Norton, Anna Mehrotra, and Irene Xagoraraki, Ph.D., A.M.ASCE, with the 2022 Wesley W. Horner Award for the paper “SARS-CoV-2 in Detroit Wastewater,” Journal of Environmental Engineering, November 2020.
In this work, researchers examined untreated wastewater samples collected from the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) Water Resource Recovery Facility (WRRF), located in southeast Michigan, between April 8 and May 26, 2020. Quantification of concentrations of human viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2, in wastewater is a critical first step in the development of wastewater-based epidemiology predictive methods. However, accurate prediction involves the incorporation of multiple other measurements, data, and processes, such as the estimation of fate and detention times of viruses in the sewer collection network, estimation of contributing population, incorporation of disease characteristics based on anthropometric data, and others. A viral disease prediction model (Viral PD) that incorporates all these other inputs is currently being developed for COVID-19 in Detroit.
The Wesley W. Horner Award recognizes papers that have contributed to the areas of hydrology, urban drainage, or sewerage.
