Wastewater sampling for 

WBE surveillance 

Kaushal Trivedi

Business Development Manager, Water Platform

Teledyne ISCO 
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OUR HISTORY

TELEDYNE ISCO

Established in 1958 

1971 invented the automatic wastewater sampler 

Now world leader in samplers

Today’s Agenda

Wastewater Sampling journey for 

WBE surveillance

Sampling Objective

• Detect Prevalence

• Find Trend
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Sampling Method: Manual Grab and Automatic

TELEDYNE ISCO

WITH DIPPER

PROS: • Simple Tool

01 WITH AUTOMATIC SAMPLER

PROS: • Consistent • Hygienic

• Quick

CONS: • Cost

02

CONS: • Can Be Unhygienic

• Time Consuming

• Variation in sample collection

• Represents singular moment in time
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Sampling Method: Composite and Sequential 

TELEDYNE ISCO

COMPOSITE 01 SEQUENTIAL 02

Single Bottle

A series of samples over a period of time (typically one day)

Will be collected in one bottle

Samples at user defined intervals

Sample in the bottle represents the “composite” of samples collected 

throughout the sampling period

Most common COVID sampling method today

Multiple Bottles

A single sample or multiple samples are placed into a given bottle

Samples are collected at user defined intervals

Bottles are switched based upon a user defined time interval

Each bottle represents the state of the source for the given time interval 

for that bottle
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FREQUENCY

• Time: Every 15 min for 24 hours

• Flow: Catchment area specific

SAMPLING

• Composite or sequential sampling with

automatic sampler • Time paced and/or flow paced

TYPE OF SAMPLER

• Permanent refrigerated

TREATMENT PLANT INFLUENT / CATCHMENT AREA

Purpose: Catchment wide /city wide community spread

WBE SAMPLING LOCATION
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FREQUENCY

• Time: Once per hour for 24 hours, • Volume: site dependent

SAMPLING

• Composite sampling with automatic

sampler • Time paced volume dependent

TYPE OF SAMPLER

• Portable with ice

WASTEWATER SEWER NETWORK

Purpose: Local Area Community Spread

WBE SAMPLING LOCATION
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FREQUENCY

• Twice a week per location for viral

concentration

• Multiple Grabs for infection prevalence

SAMPLING

• Grab sampling with automatic sampler

TYPE OF SAMPLER

• Single location: • Portable with ice

• Multiple locations: • Portable refrigerated to maintain temperature 4C

• Sequential sampling will help efficiently managed

multiple locations in a short period

BUILDINGS (Dorms, Hospitals Nursing Homes, Industries)

Purpose: Location specific spread

WBE-19 SAMPLING LOCATION
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WBE Sampling Lesson Learned

TELEDYNE ISCO

• Lesson Learned

• Samples collected by automatic samplers were consistent and source representative

• Sampler type and sampling method changes based on sampling location

• Sampling close to the source – at building outlet or in sewer network, helped in

implementing local measures and control the virus spread

• Composite sampling was adequate. In some cases, sequential was helpful

• Flow paced sampling found better for varying flow condition

• Samples should be refrigerated during transport or cooled with ice or cold packs if

refrigeration is not available. Samples should be stored at 4 Deg C
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WBE Sampling future need

TELEDYNE ISCO

• Future needs:

• Location based sampling standards and guidelines

• Realtime sensor to detect presence of virus and trigger sampler to collect samples for

further analysis and quantification

• Remote communication from field to get an alert for a quick and proactive action

• Quick implementation of results in public health initiatives
Questions?

Kaushal.Trivedi@Teledyne.com