Since the Covid pandemic, wastewater surveillance has been used as a tool for monitoring infection trends. However, surveillance has skewed to larger, well-resourced utilities. To make wastewater surveillance accessible to smaller, rural communities, the Water Environment Federation (WEF) provides free automatic samplers to wastewater utilities.
Utilities that serve communities with 10,000 or fewer people or have an average daily wastewater flow of less than 1 million gallons per day (1 MGD) are eligible for one free autosampler and flow meter. There are a limited number of autosamplers available, so every applicant may not receive one. Utilities that receive an autosampler are NOT required to participate in wastewater surveillance programs.
The deadline to apply is February 21, 2025. Find more information and apply here.
*Image show is not a depiction of the sampler to be provided.
**Our thanks to the Vermont Rural Water Association for their heads-up about the samplers!