Down the pipeline, one of your most private matters will be flushed out into anonymous public data in the city of St. Petersburg. There are three sewer sheds across the city representing groups of neighborhoods by region that drain into the Northeast Water Reclamation facility. For more than a year now, city public works employees have collected wastewater samples there three days a week. A lab then tests for concentrations of illnesses such as Influenza, COVID-19 and Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV). "Wastewater is one way that you can get information about what's going on in a population without invading anybody's privacy," City Water Resources Director John Palenchar said. "We can tell whether or not the concentrations are increasing in one sewer shed or another." The data is made public by Verily Public Health generated by a program called WaterSCAN. "Health officials can really take preventive action as they see those concentrations increasing in the wastewater before the population starts to experience symptoms," Palenchar said. MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/tech/science/st-pete-flu-season-wastewater-testing/67-81fb6bb7-e79e-4df6-9168-5e7f3116a318