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NEWS Sewer Smarts
OSU and OHA are monitoring sewer water to monitor competing COVID variants
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By Jack Harvel
Over 700 million COVID tests have been performed in the United States as of late November—more than 8 million in Oregon, and while testing is invaluable to monitor the spread of COVID, it requires individuals to get tested. On the other hand, everyone poops, and that poop can help understand broad COVID trends.
Oregon State University in partnership with the Oregon Health Authority has been testing wastewater throughout the pandemic to better understand the viral spread in communities, especially as variants outcompete the original COVID virus to the point that it’s nearly extinct in the United States. Regional water treatment plants collect and send wastewater samples to OSU twice a week for testing.
“Right now we have over 40 wastewater treatment plants across the state participating in our surveillance network,” said Tyler Radneicki, an associate professor at OSU and the TRACE COVID-19 Sewer Surveillance Lead. “Our goal is to have at least one wastewater treatment plant in every county in the state and we’re pretty close to that.”
The data collected can’t present a precise number of infections in a community, though there is ongoing research regarding the quantification of wastewater data, but it can give a general understanding of COVID trends in a community. Radneicki said that there’s enough research to suggest that concentration of the virus in wastewater is correlated with the number of cases in a community.
“The advantage of wastewater surveillance is that each time we take a single sample from a wastewater treatment plant, what we are doing is we are getting health data on every individual in the community in one sample,” Radneicki said. “So it’s a very noninvasive sampling routine, and that’s probably its biggest strength.”
Thanks to OSU’s Center for Quantitative Life Sciences, OSU can detect variants in wastewater testing.
“We’ve used it successfully in the past to track the arrival of the alpha variant, also known as the UK variant. And we used it as well for delta variant and now omicron is the next one on our radar,” Radneicki said.
The delta variant of COVID has made up over 95% of Oregon cases since August, and before that it gradually grew as cases of the less effective alpha, gamma and other variants shrunk. So far, Omicron hasn’t been detected in Oregon. The prevalence of a variant is measured in what is called “reads.”
“We saw this with alpha and delta. It was all alpha for a long time and then delta came along. What happened is the number of reads for alpha in a given sample went down while the number of reads and delta went up. And then they eventually just replaced each other,” Radneicki said. “That may happen with omicron; we’re going to keep an eye on that.”
Wastewater testing can cover large populations, collecting data on all patrons of a wastewater treatment plant, but it also can be tailored narrowly. Specific neighborhoods can be singled out for testing, and at OSU campuses even individual buildings are being monitored. Radneicki said the expanded use of wastewater testing goes beyond how it has been used before, especially with polymerase chain reaction tests that are less labor intensive than traditional methods.
“It was first used to track polio and was used very successfully to find and eradicate polio in countries across the globe, including the United States,” he said. “Countries such as Israel were using this technology in the ‘80s, to still track down polio. And there were Scandinavian countries in the early 2000s, that were using it to track things such as influenza outbreaks. So it’s been used. It does have a history and has been used a bit here and there, across the world. But now with COVID-19, it’s really seen a reemergence.”
Deshaun Adderley Scholarship Recipients Announced
A scholarship named in honor of bullied teen awarded to 16 Central Oregon students
By Jack Harvel
Courtesy Jack Harvel
Father’s Group members announce recipients of the Deshaun Adderley Scholarship at The Haven Coworking Space on Thursday, Dec. 2.
Members of the Father’s Group announced the recipients of the first Deshaun Adderley Scholarship on Thursday, awarding 16 students money in increments ranging from $100 to $1,000. The scholarship was created in honor of Adderley, who died by suicide in 2017 after being repeatedly bullied at Summit High School.
Adderley’s death sparked a conversation about bullying, teen suicide and racism in Bend. His father, Donavan, congratulated the scholarship’s recipients at the award ceremony.
“I know [Deshaun]’s smiling down. And he’s very appreciative of everything that’s going on,” Adderley said. “I just want to say to all the kids that’s getting their scholarships, congratulations.”
The Father’s Group, a nonprofit focused on eliminating barriers to success for children from marginalized communities, created the scholarship to celebrate Adderley’s legacy.
“We’re celebrating his life, and what he could have been, what he wanted to do. So, if we can give students an opportunity to have people who are here, who are listening and want to help ensure to provide a pathway for them to be able to get to where he wanted to get to,” said Marcus LeGrand, a board member of the Father’s Group.
The scholarship was open to students of color who apply with an essay, a few questions and an explanation of the student’s needs.
“I don’t know a kid of color in Bend that isn’t having issues in school to some extent,” said David Merritt, president of the Father’s Group. “What we want to be is that catalyst, so that when people are being bullied and people are being marginalized, we can step in and kind of guide the situation, and let them know that they’re not alone, because that’s what’s most important. Being a kid of color, you’ve got to know you’re not alone.”
The scholarship’s recipients are in a range of different academic programs and come from across Central Oregon.
“We represent all of Central Oregon, we don’t want anybody to feel left out,” Merritt said. “You have people from Madras, Sisters, Warm Springs.”
The Father’s Group may add volunteer requirements or a minimum GPA to the scholarship criteria in the future, but is still looking to expand the program for maximum impact.
“I want to be able to help more students, I’d love to help every student in need, it’s just not always possible, but depending on how much funding we can get, we can get closer to that mark,” Merritt said.
The Father’s Group is taking donations for the scholarship at DeshaunScholarship.com.
For assistance, contact the following: deschutes.org/suicideprevention Call the local crisis line: 541-322-7500 ext. 9 or 800-875-7354 Visit the crisis walk-in center, 2577 NE Courtney, Bend, Mon-Fri 8 am-4 pm Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255) Text 273TALK to 839-863 Oregon YouthLine (teen-to-teen crisis and help line) Call: 877-968-8491 Text: 839863 Online support: Oregonyouthline.org Trans LifeLine: 1-877-565-8860 The Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386
Street Outreach Teams to Grow
County approves funds to bring more supports for unhoused population
By Nicole Vulcan
Chadd Tullis
Deschutes County is adding three positions aimed at providing support for the unhoused population in Bend, La Pine, Redmond and Sisters. The Deschutes County Board of Commissioners approved the use of more than $1 million in funds received through the American Rescue Plan Act to fund three new behavioral health positions in the county. The new staff members will offer outreach to the growing population of people in the county without homes, helping them access resources and services offered by public and private entities in the region. The funds will also be used for supplies and a new outreach truck that staffers can use for on-street support. Sometimes, it’s not possible for unhoused people to leave the location they’re at for various reasons, and some fear leaving their belongings behind in order to go access services. With the use of the truck, outreach workers can provide support services on site that may have otherwise required them to transport people elsewhere, the county stated.
“These new staff will provide behavioral health outreach, engagement and case management support to individuals in a variety of settings such as shelters, supported housing and managed camps,” Commissioner Phil Chang stated in a Dec. 7 press release.
While not yet built, the City of Bend is currently reviewing requests for proposals to build and operate a managed camp for unhoused people on city-owned property. The location has not yet been announced.
The City of Bend and Deschutes County are also considering forming a joint office on homelessness, allowing local governments, nonprofits and other entities to come together to work on solutions. Currently, much of that collaboration happens by way of the Homeless Leadership Coalition, a group that includes nonprofits, service providers and local governments. Formalizing into a joint office would allow groups to pool not just resources, but funding sources, too, City Councilor Megan Perkins told the Source in September.
Advocates for the joint office are pushing the county to take action to support that coordinated effort, encouraging community members to write to the Deschutes County Board of Commissioners, asking them to submit a formal letter of interest to the Association of Oregon Counties and the League of Oregon Cities, asking to be part of any upcoming City/County joint office homelessness office pilot programs.
Meanwhile, this week, members of the Homeless Leadership Coalition announced that they had signed on to be part of Built for Zero, a national effort involving more than 90 cities and counties, with an aim to reduce homelessness to “functional zero” in communities.
In this Source Weekly file photo, Hawk, a Central Oregonian who was living in an encampment on Central Oregon Irrigation District property as of 2017, chatted with an outreach worker who had to use a four-wheel drive to access the camp. “The local Built for Zero team will represent a community-wide effort to collaborate and develop systems to measurably end homelessness,” a press release from Built for Zero stated. According to the organization, 14 communities within its Roaring 20’s” New Year’s Eve Celebration network have achieved the goal of func&Silent Auction tional-zero homelessness.
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