Wastewater monitoring
Working with community partners to detect traces of viruses and substances of potential abuse in wastewater
UCalgary researchers are leaders in wastewater monitoring for infectious viruses and use of Substances of Potential Abuse (SoPA). Since 2020, our researchers, with support of public and industry partners, have been developing and expanding wastewater monitoring programs to help inform public health officials and citizens.
Wastewater contains a wealth of information about contributing populations. Analogous to collecting blood from a person, wastewater can be sampled and analyzed to understand population health with minimal intrusion and expense.
The program began by monitoring for traces of COVID-19 in wastewater in 2020, and expanded to include RSV and flu in subsequent years. This monitoring is still active, under the management of Alberta Health (AH) and Alberta Precision Laboratories (APL), and continues to be shared on the Center for Health Informatics dashboard.
In 2023, the program expanded to include monitoring for Substances of Potential Abuse (SoPA). Monitoring wastewater for opioids and other drugs provides information that could be used as an early warning about the level of toxicity of local drug supply.
These programs include scholars from Cumming School of Medicine, Faculty of Science, and Schulich School of Engineering; Advancing Canadian Water Assets (ACWA), and staff from The City of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services (AHS).
From wastewater to public health insights
Sampling across human, agricultural, and agri-food environments can deliver rapid and inclusive data enabling data-driven actions by governments, industries and individuals.
What is Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE)?
Wastewater-based Epidemiology (WBE) is the process of analyzing wastewater to measure levels of selected substances. It is a method of monitoring for pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, or other substances of concern.
What are the benefits of wastewater monitoring?
Wastewater samples offer an inclusive and non-biased way to study population health, making this monitoring an economical and effective tool for early detection of infection transmission, enabling mitigation and prevention of outbreaks of disease.
Substances of Potential Abuse
Substances of Potential Abuse (SoPA) are constantly shifting in wastewater and looking for these drugs can provide valuable tools in determining emerging threats with potential outcomes for resource allocation and addiction recovery. At ACWA, methods have been developed to capture as many of these compounds as possible. Our comprehensive anaytical approach includes the use of LC-MS/MS and LC-QTOF systems allowing for quantification of targeted analytes and accurate mass detection of untargeted compounds. Some of the targeted substances include benzodiazepines, sedatives, stimulants, opioids, and hallucinogens.
Wastewater monitoring underway for opioids and other drugs
Researchers say wastewater monitoring could provide an early warning and possibly save lives
Monitoring wastewater could help drug users avoid harm
The technique first gained traction during the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 and other viruses
UCalgary's wastewater monitoring program began in 2020 by looking for traces of the COVID-19 virus, which then expanded to include COVID-19 variant tracking, as well as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the flu.
Wastewater data captures all cases of a virus in a defined population, including symptomatic and asymptomatic cases. The data shows that high levels of traces of viral material in wastewater are followed by a rise in clinically diagnosed cases, which suggests that this technology can be used as an early warning system. Public health officials can use this data as an additional tool to understand how viruses are spreading in the community.
Team Leads
- Dr. Michael Parkins, MD (Cumming School of Medicine)
- Dr. Casey Hubert, PhD (Faculty of Science)
- Advancing Canadian Water Assets (ACWA)
- Alberta Health
- Alberta Health Services
- Alberta Innovates
- Calgary Health Foundation
- Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI)
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR)
- C.E.C Innovations
- The City of Calgary
- Genome Canada
- Genome Alberta
- Mathison Family Foundation
- Mitacs
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC)
- Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)
- University of Alberta
- Acosta N, Lee J, Bautista MA, Bhatnagar S, Li C, Waddell BJ, et al. (2025) Metagenomic analysis after selective culture enrichment of hospital and community wastewater enhances antimicrobial resistance gene detection. mBio 16:e01672-25.
- Acosta N, Beaudet AB, Westlund P, Frankowski K, Hu J, Sedaghat N, Pradhan P, Man L, Hollman J, Bautista MA, Waddell BJ, McCalder J, Penney M, Chen J, Meddings J, Achari G, Ryan MC, Cabaj JL, Clark RG, Hubert CRJ, Parkins MD.2025. Performance and suitability of wastewater based-surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in public schools. Scientific Reports 15:34364.
- Conforti S, Pruden A, Acosta N, et al. (2025) Strengthening Policy Relevance of Wastewater-Based Surveillance for Antimicrobial Resistance. Environmental Science & Technology 59:2339-2343.
- Lee J, Xiang K, Au E, Sarabi S, Acosta N, et al. (2025) Longitudinal monitoring of sewershed resistomes in socioeconomically diverse urban neighborhoods. Communications Medicine 5:7.
- McCalder J, Lee J, Qiu J, Li Q, Immaraj L, Acosta N, et al. (2025) Consistent trends from different methods for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 in urban wastewater during a 29-month longitudinal study. Frontiers in Microbiology Volume 16 - 2025.
- Dai, X., Acosta N., et al. (2024) A Bayesian framework for modeling COVID-19 case numbers through longitudinal monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater. Stat Med
- Acosta, N., et al. (2023) Wastewater-based surveillance can be used to model COVID-19-associated workforce absenteeism. Science of The Total Environment 900, 165172.
- Parkins, M.D., Lee, B.E., Acosta, N., et al. (2023) Wastewater-based surveillance as a tool for public health action: SARS-CoV-2 and beyond. Clinical Microbiology Reviews 0, e00103-00122.
- Schmidt, P.J., Acosta N., et al. (2023). Realizing the value in “non-standard” parts of the qPCR standard curve by integrating fundamentals of quantitative microbiology. Frontiers in Microbiology, 14.
- Lee, J., Acosta N., et al. (2023) Campus node-based wastewater surveillance enables COVID-19 case localization and confirms lower SARS-CoV-2 burden relative to the surrounding community. Water Research 244, 120469 (2023).
- Yu, L., Acosta, N., Bautista, M.A.; McCalder, J.; Hollman, J.; Pogosian, S.; Hubert, C.R.J.; Parkins, M.D.; Achari, G (2023) Quantitative Evaluation of Municipal Wastewater Disinfection by 280 nm UVC LED. Water 2023, 15, 1257.
- Acosta N, Bautista MA, Waddell BJ, et al. (2023) Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and its variants in wastewater of tertiary care hospitals correlates with increasing case burden and outbreaks. Journal of Medical Virology; 95(2): e28442.
- Acosta, N., Bautista, MA, Waddell, BJ, et al. 2022. Longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 RNA wastewater monitoring across a range of scales correlates with total and regional COVID-19 burden in a well-defined urban population. Water Research; 220: 118611.
- Hubert C, Acosta N, Waddell B, Hasing ME, Qiu Y, Fuzzen M, et al. 2022. Tracking Emergence and Spread of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Variant in Large and Small Communities by Wastewater Monitoring in Alberta, Canada. Emerg Infect Dis,28(9):1770-1776.
- Nicole Acosta, María A. Bautista, Jordan Hollman, Janine McCalder, Alexander Buchner Beaudet, Lawrence Man, Barbara J. Waddell, Jianwei Chen, Carmen Li, Darina Kuzma, Srijak Bhatnagar, Jenine Leal, Jon Meddings, Jia Hu, Jason L. Cabaj, Norma J. Ruecker, Christopher Naugler, Dylan R. Pillai, Gopal Achari, M. Cathryn Ryan, John M. Conly, Kevin Frankowski, Casey RJ Hubert, Michael D. Parkins. 2021. A multicenter study investigating SARS-CoV-2 in tertiary-care hospital wastewater. viral burden correlates with increasing hospitalized cases as well as hospital-associated transmissions and outbreaks. Water Research 201:117369.
What else is in a flush? Researchers are going to find out
UCalgary researchers awarded $6M to expand successful COVID-19 wastewater monitoring program to detect a wider range of viruses
In the news
The COVID-19 wasteland: searching for clues in the sewers
Using municipal waste water to look for evidence of the virus behind COVID-19 is part of a rapidly expanding body of science. The virus is shed in human waste, often before a patient even knows they are sick.
Calgary wastewater samples show recent spike in coronavirus
The data shows levels of the virus trending upward, and sample points higher than the previous highs seen in mid-December, when Calgary was in its second wave
Experts identify rise of COVID-19 in Calgary wastewater
Experts have been studying wastewater data for levels of the virus, and they’re seeing higher levels than ever before
New website lets Calgarians track traces of COVID-19
A new website that tracks traces of COVID-19 found in Calgary’s wastewater is now up and running and available to the public
UCalgary News
Alberta’s largest research universities team up to track evidence of COVID-19 in wastewater of 3.2M people across Alberta
Funding provided by Government of Alberta supports provincial monitoring network and online tracker tool
Research proves that testing hospital wastewater for COVID-19 can help catch localized outbreaks faster
Wastewater monitoring has potential to revolutionize how we track public health
Calgarians can now track traces of COVID-19 in their wastewater
Data available to public thanks to UCalgary, City of Calgary, and Alberta Health Services partnership
Listening, learning and sharing are key to successful COVID-19 wastewater project
Award-winning interdisciplinary team tracks local COVID cases one manhole at a time
UCalgary, The City of Calgary and AHS team up in the fight against COVID-19
Wastewater samples will help identify local outbreaks, fast
Federal government announces funding for COVID-19 research projects
Exceptional Opportunities Fund invests in research infrastructure for 3 UCalgary projects
Announcing UCalgary’s Peak Scholars in COVID-19 Innovation Excellence
Scholars recognized for their commitment to entrepreneurialism and innovation