DOI: 10.14466/CefasDataHub.148

Description

The sewage treatment works dataset includes norovirus levels, ammonia concentrations and orthophosphate concentrations in wastewater from 3,232 samples and their associated metadata collected for the Environmental Monitoring for Health Protection (EMHP) programme between May 2021 and March 2022 from the untreated influent of 152 sewage treatment works across England. The samples are a subset of samples that were originally collected and analysed for SARS-CoV-2. The network dataset includes all of the norovirus levels, ammonia concentrations and orthophosphate concentrations in wastewater from 220 samples and their associated metadata collected for the Environmental Monitoring for Health Protection (EMHP) programme between May 2021 and March 2022 from 11 sewerage network sites across England. "NETWORK" sites were located further upstream of the sewershed than the sewage treatment works (STWs). Network sites were typically used during the COVID-19 pandemic to get better spatially resolved data than was possible using sewage works alone.

The samples were originally received by Environment Agency, and were taken by the companies who owned the assets. The samples were spiked with an extraneous control virus (phi6) to act as a quality control before the viruses were concentrated by ammonium sulphate precipitation and nucleic acid extraction using the NucliSENS reagents with Kingfisher robot. The nucleic acids were first used to quantify SARS-CoV-2 in the samples before being stored at -80°C. The norovirus data were generated from the nucleic acid extracts by the Environment Agency at Starcross laboratory based in Exeter on behalf of Cefas. Norovirus concentrations were measured using a duplex RT-qPCR duplex assay. The duplex assay measures norovirus genogroup I (GI) and genogroup II (GII) separately. Norovirus data were converted from genome copies per reaction to genome copies per litre, and then further normalised for flow and population size for the sewershed. Flow was estimated using ammonia and orthophosphate concentrations for each sample. Human population was estimated using ONS (Office of National Statistics) mid-2019 estimates based on data from the 2011 census. Ammonia and orthophosphate concentrations (mg/l) were measured in the samples according to the Environment Agency’s in-house methods. These methods were based on the relevant Standing Committee of Analysts methods (SCA).

Contributors

Walker, David I. / Wade, Matthew J. Wade / Witt Jessica / Rostant, Wayne / Posen, Paulette / Lowther, James / Porter, Jonathan / Evens, Nicholas / Davison, Vicki / Burton, Robert / Wickens, Tyler / Peters, Nancy / Ditchburn, Jackie / Godwin, Reg / Heywood, Jane

Subject

Virus abundance in water bodies / Chemical in the environment

Start Date

27/05/2021

End Date

31/03/2022

Year Published

2024

Version

1

Citation

Walker et al (2024). Norovirus, ammonia and orthophosphate in wastewater samples collected from across England 2021 - 2022. Cefas, UK. V1. doi: https://doi.org/10.14466/CefasDataHub.148

Rights List

Open Government Licence

DOI

10.14466/CefasDataHub.148