GREENVILLE, S.C. (WSPA)–Utility companies are stepping up to the plate to help track the coronavirus. At the Mauldin Road ReWa facility, samples are taken and then sent to a lab to be tested for COVID-19 particles.

Those studying the data say it can give a more accurate look at the spread of the virus.

“We thought this plant would be the most telling of what was going on in the community,” Cameron Colby, the regulatory services resident for ReWa, said.

Colby studies samples taken from the Mauldin Road basin twice a week to determine the spread of COVID-19 in the community.

“Once somebody does become infected with the virus, whether or not they show symptoms, they’re going to shed the virus in their fecal matter,” Colby said.

The Mauldin Road plant pulls from parts of Travelers Rest all the way to Greenville and Mauldin, giving ReWa a large sample of the population to study.

“The purpose of testing the wastewater is to get a one to two week jump start on what’s actually happening in the community before people show symptoms and ultimately get tested,” Colby said.

Then, the samples get sent to a lab, and the results are interpreted by Dr. David Freedman at Clemson.

“So that we have some indication of what’s happening in the Upstate,” Freedman said.

Freedman said the wastewater results give a better look at how many people are infected in a given moment.

“There are still a lot of infected individuals even though the number of new cases being reported has started to decline,” Freedman said.

That information can then be given to governments to decide how to handle the spread.

“To administrators to make decisions about when is an appropriate time to implement more strict social distancing measures,” Freedman said.

The coronavirus particles in the wastewater aren’t dangerous, but they can hold the key to tracking the virus on a daily basis.

“So it really is the truest most real time capture of what we have going on in the community at any given moment,” Colby said.

The findings from the water in the Upstate are being compiled with other similar studies across the country to eventually be published.