Johnson said that when the Covid-19 pandemic reached Elko, the City wanted to be proactive in regard to the public water system. The city began sewage testing on May 5.
The tests are picking up virus samples that have already passed through the human body.
Johnson emphasized that sewage is being tested, not drinking water.
“I had city staff increase the chlorine residual [in the public water system] in early March as the virus started to spread around the country,” Johnson wrote in an email. “We increased from our optimum 0.5mgf/L to 1.0 mg/L with a new optimum being 0.8mg/L. This was done for reassurance as we did not know exactly what we were dealing with other than a virus.”
“[In] late March, the American Water Works Association and EPA released bulletins that systems should maintain a 0.5 mg/L to ensure there was not a chance of virus survival in drinking water supplies.”
Individual virus test results are being recorded by county officials on a daily basis, according to Dr. Bryce Putnam, Elko County health officer.
“We are all in this together,” Putnam said during Tuesday’s council meeting. “We all want the economy to go and we all want to be completely safe. In between those two levels of public health and safety and the economy reopening is a very simple solution, and you are all doing it today. That’s just wearing a mask.”
