A federal judge has sentenced the former supervisor of Sioux City, Iowa’s wastewater treatment facility to two years of probation, including two months of home confinement, for falsifying test results.

The judge also issued a fine of $5,000 to the 71-year-old man, who pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and knowingly falsifying test results.

According to prosecutors, the former supervisor and other workers would increase chlorine levels on the days when samples were tested for E. coli.

COVID‑19 Spread Via Wastewater Could Affect Marine Mammals, Says Study

Certain species of whales, seals and other endangered marine mammals could fall victim to COVID-19 infection through wastewater that seeps into their marine habitats, researchers at Dalhousie say in a new study that has found some of the animals to be highly susceptible to the virus.

In a study published in Science of the Total Environment, the team describes how it used genomic mapping to determine which marine mammals would be vulnerable to COVID-19. They looked at key amino acids that the virus binds to and found that there were striking similarities between those in humans and in several marine mammals, including dolphins, beluga whales, seals and sea otters.

Contractor, 80, Injured in WWTP Fall

An 80-year-old contractor was seriously injured after falling about 30 feet into a wastewater treatment reservoir in College Station, Texas, according to KXXV News.

First responders treated and stabilized him before extricating him from the reservoir and flying him to a nearby hospital.