Longmont is participating in a multi-agency project to sample the raw sewage headed for local Colorado wastewater treatment plants for the presence of COVID-19.

Communities elsewhere in the U.S. and Europe have used similar projects to provide an early warning of a COVID-19 outbreak, according to a recent Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment news release, an Aug. 12 press call by that agency and a briefing the Longmont Council got from its own city staff last week.

Monitoring for the virus in wastewater may help inform community officials whether there will be an outbreak in a couple of days to a week in advance of such an outbreak, state health officials said.

“The virus can appear in poop before someone shows any symptoms,” state health officials said in a website about the program, tinyurl.com/y54lgo28.