UPDATE: The Tarentum Borough water plant has received a few calls recently about the threat of the COVID-19 virus. We want to ensure our community that the drinking water in Tarentum (and other centralized treatment facilities) is not at risk.

The following is information from the World Health Organization regarding water supply and the COVID-19 virus:

Currently, there is no evidence about the survival of the COVID-19 virus in drinking-water or sewage. The morphology and chemical structure of the COVID-19 virus are similar to those of other surrogate human coronaviruses for which there are data about both survival in the environment and effective inactivation measures.

The COVID-19 virus has not been detected in drinking-water supplies, and based on current evidence, the risk to water supplies is low. Conventional, centralized water treatment methods that utilize filtration and disinfection should inactivate the COVID-19 virus. Other human coronaviruses have been shown to be sensitive to chlorination. The COVID-19 virus is an enveloped virus, with a fragile outer membrane. As enveloped viruses are surrounded by a lipid host cell membrane, which is not robust, the COVID-19 virus is likely to be more sensitive to chlorine and other oxidant disinfection processes than many other viruses.