LUCAS COUNTY, Ohio — In a race to stop the spread of COVID-19, local health officials are gathering data from a rather interesting place: raw sewage water.
"You have the ability to shed this through stool. So, when you actually, again utilize the bathroom and flush the toilet, that has to go someplace and what it's doing then is looking for fragments of the virus," said Eric Zgodzinski, the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department Health Commissioner.
One of those places raw sewage water goes to is the Napoleon Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Dave Pike, the superintendent of the plant, says they were asked to volunteer for the testing.
"We sample 3 days a week for EPA reporting, purposes and testing. We'll collect the sample on our influent, a raw influent water coming in, and then we'll split our sample with the University of Toledo," explained Pike.