OREGON
A6 — THE OBSERVER
SATURDAY, JUNE 25, 2022
Wastewater data fi nds more people have COVID than reported
Rise in home testing, decrease in disease severity
have masked large increase in infections in Oregon
By AMELIA TEMPLETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Last month, a
new COVID-19 variant from the
omicron family spread across
Oregon, causing a seventh wave of
infections.
On paper, this seventh wave
hasn’t looked particularly impres-
sive, peaking in late May at about
1,500 new cases reported per day.
But data from sewage samples col-
lected at wastewater treatment
plants across the state suggests that
the BA2 omicron variant is silently
causing far more infections than are
showing up in state testing tallies.
“Wastewater across the state is
more or less at record highs or near
record highs,” said Tyler Radniecki,
an associate professor of environ-
mental engineering who is leading
the wastewater sampling research
eff ort at Oregon State University.
The OSU project is part of a
nationwide COVID-19 wastewater
surveillance eff ort. The viral con-
centrations in Oregon during the
current surge look similar to what
the team saw during the peaks of
the delta surge last August and the
fi rst omicron surge in January.
By the end of May, the concen-
tration of virus in wastewater sam-
ples registered as “strong,” indi-
cating a signifi cant outbreak, in
much of the state. In a handful of
communities, including Forest
Grove and Bend, concentrations
of the virus were even higher, sig-
naling particularly intense BA2
outbreaks.
What the wastewater shows,
Radniecki says, is that the state’s
tally of COVID-19 cases is a very
signifi cant underestimate of the
actual spread of BA2.
The Observer, File
A danger sign hangs near the entrance to the La Grande Wastewater Lagoon
Headworks on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022. The treatment center stopped testing for
COVID-19 in January of 2021 after experiencing diffi culties related to a short staff
and skewed testing results.
Wastewater monitoring does not,
however, give any indication of how
much severe illness a particular
variant is causing. Hospitalization
data shows BA2, like other omicron
variants, is mostly causing milder
cases, though the number of people
with COVID-19 in intensive care
rose above 50 this week.
Ballot title certifi ed for revived
animal cruelty initiative
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
SALEM — A contro-
versial voter initiative in
Oregon that would remove
exemptions for farming and
ranching under the state’s
animal cruelty laws is being
revived for another run.
Proponents of Initia-
tive Petition 3 — named the
Abuse, Neglect and Assault
Exemption Modifi cation
and Improvement Act —
took another step toward
qualifying for the 2024 gen-
eral election after being
issued a certifi ed ballot title
on Monday, June 13.
IP3 is essentially a
reboot on Initiative Peti-
tion 13, which was fi led last
year for the 2022 election. It
calls for amending Oregon’s
animal abuse and neglect
statutes, abolishing long-
standing exemptions for
agriculture.
The result would make
it a crime to slaughter live-
stock for food, while also
banning common animal
husbandry practices such
as branding and dehorning
cattle. Artifi cial insemina-
tion would furthermore be
considered sexual assault of
an animal, a Class C felony.
Exemptions for hunting,
fi shing, rodeos, pest con-
trol, scientifi c research and
wildlife management would
likewise be stripped away
under the the proposal.
According to the “Yes on
IP3” campaign website, the
laws would retain exemp-
tions for killing or injuring
animals in cases of self-de-
fense and providing veteri-
nary care.
David Michelson, a Port-
land-based animal rights
activist and lead organizer
for the campaign, said IP13
failed to garner enough sig-
natures for the 2022 ballot
because, “unlike the claims
some have made that we
receive funding from the
George Plaven/Capital Press, File
Holstein cows eat feed inside the dairy barn at Tilla-Bay Farms in
Tillamook on Oregon’s North Coast in this undated fi le photo.
likes of (George) Soros or
(Bill) Gates, this is a very
grassroots initiative that
had started with very few
team members.”
“Since we started this
process in November 2020,
we have steadily grown in
support and are hopeful
of our chances for quali-
fying in 2024,” Michelson
said in response to ques-
tions emailed by the Capital
Press.
Petitioners fi led IP3 on
March 16. It is largely the
same as IP13, but with two
additions, Michelson said.
First, he said IP3 would
remove additional exemp-
tions for livestock and
farmed animals under
animal neglect statutes
requiring they have access
to “adequate bedding, ade-
quate shelter and other min-
imum care provisions.”
Second, the initia-
tive would make it so that
anyone convicted of animal
cruelty could not own any
animal for 5-15 years,
depending on the severity
State to start sending $600 stimulus
payments to low-income workers
By JAMIE GOLDBERG
The Oregonian
SALEM — More than
200,000 Oregon workers
will receive $600 checks
from the state as soon as
this week.
Oregon lawmakers in
March approved the one-
time stimulus payments for
certain low-income workers.
The payments will go to
Oregonians who claimed the
Earned Income Tax Credit
in 2020, a tax break for
low-income working house-
holds, and lived within the
state in the last six months
of that year.
The Oregon Department
of Revenue said Wednesday
it would distribute nearly
$141.8 million to 236,000
qualifying households. Pay-
ments are limited to one per
household.
About $82 million will
be deposited directly into
the bank accounts of quali-
fying individuals, while the
remaining nearly $60 million
will be sent via mail. The
state said qualifying individ-
uals will receive the money
no later than Friday, July 1.
The state is paying for
the stimulus payments
with federal pandemic aid
approved by Congress last
year.
Rich Hoover, a spokes-
person for The Oregon
Department of Revenue,
said the payments are not
subject to state or federal
income tax.
House Bill 4157 passed
by wide margins in both
chambers of the Oregon
Legislature this spring,
with a handful of Republi-
cans joining majority Dem-
ocrats in supporting the
bill. The payments evolved
from a 2021 plan for larger
stimulus payments — up
to $2,000 — to essential
workers who stayed on the
job during the pandemic
and those who rejoined the
workforce last fall.
of the crime.
While the attorney gen-
eral did certify the ballot
title for IP3, supporters are
not yet approved to start cir-
culating the petition. Those
who commented on the
draft ballot title for IP3 may
appeal the certifi ed title to
the Oregon Supreme Court.
Appeals are due June 28.
If approved, the cam-
paign would need to collect
112,020 signatures to place
IP3 on the 2024 ballot.
Tami Kerr, executive
director of the Oregon
Dairy Farmers Association,
said IP3 would put dairies
and cattle producers out
of business, hurting rural
communities statewide.
“I know how hard our
producers work, my family
included. It’s personally
off ensive,” Kerr said. “As
crazy as this is, and as neg-
ative as it would be to our
rural communities, I would
hope that a lot of our elected
offi cials would speak out in
opposition to it, our state
senators included.”
Case counts have always been
a very imperfect measure of actual
infections because they are highly
dependent on the number of people
getting clinically tested for COVID-
19. And as more people use rapid
at-home tests, the amount of clinical
testing is dropping, making case
counts an even less reliable proxy
for COVID-19 spread.
To better understand how prev-
alent the virus is, some local public
health offi cials are increasingly
relying on the wastewater data
instead.
The surveillance method takes
advantage of the fact that many
people infected with COVID-19
shed the virus in their poop. The
OSU team collects data from
around 40 wastewater treatment
plants statewide, from Ontario to
Warm Springs to Florence.
Every week, the treatment plants
use a small fi lter to collect a rep-
resentative sample of the sewage
fl owing in over a 24-hour period.
The fi lters get rolled up, stuck in
little tubes, and shipped to Cor-
vallis. OSU’s scientists identify
viral RNA on the droplets in the
fi lters and quantify it. After two
years of honing the process, it now
takes about four to fi ve days from
when a sample is collected to when
OSU has an estimate of how much
COVID-19 virus is in it.