Saskatoon’s wastewater surveillance practices for COVID-19 and marine pollution have placed it on a list of 50 international projects named to the 2021 Smart 50.
The list recognizes the 50 best examples of smart cities at work each year by highlighting specific projects with “real municipal-scale” results. The list includes honourees from around the globe, including two others from Canada: Vaughan and Kitchener, Ontario.
The Smart Cities Connect Media and Research organizers recognized the collaboration between the University of Saskatchewan (USask) the City of Saskatoon, and the Saskatchewan Health Authority, to facilitate testing of the viral signal in the wastewater and determine increases in new positive cases seven to 10 days after sample collection.
From May 19-26, a 45% decrease in viral RNA load in Saskatoon’s wastewater was observed, compared to the previous week.
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But the Smart 50 honour also recognizes the collaborative research team’s ability to measure levels of human pharmaceuticals such as antibiotics in Saskatoon’s wastewater, to assess potential risks these chemicals might pose to the downstream environment. It is a venture under the Research Junction banner, a funding mechanism that helps to find tailored solutions to complex challenges in Saskatoon.
“Working directly with city staff ensures that our wastewater research tackles some of the most immediate needs of municipalities today — from predicting virus trends to understanding potential environmental risks associated with trace contaminants such as pharmaceuticals in wastewater,” announced USask toxicologist Markus Brinkmann, principal investigator on the Research Junction project. “This partnership is in line with our aspiration to become the university the world needs,” he added.
Saskatoon’s wastewater surveillance is led by USask researchers John Giesy, Kerry McPhedran, and Brinkmann. The team also includes toxicologist Paul Jones, program manager Yuwei Xie, engineering PhD student Mohsen Asadi, and Toxicology Centre research associates Femi Oloye and Jenna Cantin. Mike Sadowski, manager of the City of Saskatoon’s Wastewater Treatment Plant, is the city’s principal investigator on the project.
The USask research team was given $137,392 from the Public Health Agency of Canada to conduct a six-month COVID-19 wastewater surveillance project in Saskatoon and at five Saskatchewan First Nations communities, to provide early warning of outbreaks. Results from the work will be used for pandemic modelling and to inform public health decision making and health care capacity planning, using a combination of artificial intelligence and computer simulation.
