OBSERVER Photo by Gregory Bacon The Chautauqua County Board of Health met in person in Mayville this week.

MAYVILLE — Chautauqua County health officials are expressing their support for monitoring wastewater for COVID-19 as well as other communicable diseases.

On Wednesday, the county legislature will vote on a resolution to create a fund to pay for a wastewater surveillance mentorship Pilot program. The resolution was tabled last month.

Christine Schuyler, public health director and commissioner of Social Services, said delaying the resolution does not stop the program; it only affect how it is paid. “Wastewater surveillance will occur in this county regardless of this resolution. This is a grant that is paying for the mentor relationship that we’re establishing through the National Association of City and County Health Officials,” she said during the Board of Health meeting Thursday.

In December the legislature passed a resolution that permitted the wastewater monitoring. The January resolution focuses more on establishing an account to accept a grant.

After the resolution was pulled last month, Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon said some county lawmakers had further questions about the program and asked it to be tabled. They wanted to ensure that privacy remained intact and that private wells were not being monitored.

Schuyler noted that wastewater monitoring for disease has been going on for years, long before COVID-19.

Around the globe, health officials have monitored wastewater for everything from polio to hepatitis. “It’s always been kind of a shadow program in terms of public health until COVID-19. COVID-19 has really brought the wastewater surveillance monitoring to the forefront,” she said.

But the reason health officials have used it for so long is because of its benefits and anonymity. “It is the most noninvasive, non-intrusive methods, and one of the least expensive methods to really look at community trends,” Schuyler said.

Legislator Elisabeth Rankin, R-Jamestown, is a member of the Board of Health and said she has been contacted by fellow legislators and constituents who are opposed to this program due to fears of identifying people with COVID-19 and forcing them to quarantine or an entire community to quarantine.

Board member Dr. Robert Burke, said wastewater monitoring is not something people should be concerned about. “It is completely anonymous. It is agnostic. You cannot identify anybody. You’re just looking for if this (disease) is in the community or not,” he said.

He added that SUNY Fredonia has done wastewater monitoring for student housing. “There’s thousands of students and they were just looking to see if they had COVID in the dorms. It’s cheap, it’s easy and it gives you some idea of what’s going on without any personal data being shared,” he said.

Health Board President Dr. Lillian Ney said it’s important for health officials to know if COVID cases are going up. “It will show the early emergence of major trouble so that people can get organized and be sure they have enough tests, enough vaccine, enough masks or whatever. … It’s so we can be prepared,” she said.

Schuyler said she is surprised this has become a controversy. “Everyone all around us is doing this. Our neighboring counties, our neighboring states are doing wastewater surveillance. This has been around for decades and decades. … Even very conservative counties in Western New York, Cattaraugus, Allegany, Genesee, Orleans, all of their Boards of Supervisors and legislatures have been all in, fully 100% support,” she said.

Bill Boria with the county Health Department said samples are being collected in Jamestown and Dunkirk at the entrance to the wastewater treatment plants. They’re not collecting samples from individual neighborhoods or private septics.