There’s just one problem with the Biden administration’s plan to monitor the nation’s sewage in the hopes of preventing the next pandemic: Many states are not yet on board
These efforts caught the attention of federal health officials at the CDC, who launched the National Wastewater Surveillance System — NWSS, pronounced “news” — in late 2020.
“Having more sites sampling wastewater allows for a more robust national surveillance system, but we know that one of the biggest advantages of NWSS is that it gives local health officials specific, actionable information about what’s happening in their community so that they can take steps to protect the public’s health, if needed,” a CDC spokesperson said.
“They were busy trying to respond to the Covid pandemic, and they did not have enough bandwidth to also stand up a brand new surveillance system,” said Amy Kirby, a senior service fellow in the Waterborne Disease Prevention Branch at the CDC. “We know we’re asking a lot of them.” “I think people get frustrated at the pace at which things are happening,” said Erik Coats, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Idaho. “But it just takes some time.”
The backup plan — to entice these states to build long-term wastewater infrastructure by proving the value of the data — is struggling, too. Some treatment plants were wary of working with LuminUltra because they had no prior relationship with the company. Wastewater treatment plants are regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency and are “fairly sensitive to additional activity,” McIntosh said.
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