COVID-19 wastewater efforts confront long-term questions

Public health experts hope the technology will help monitor threats beyond COVID-19, like opioids and the flu, but the strategy requires resources and political buy-in. And while Congress has enacted billions in pandemic funding for states, only a handful have used the money to establish wastewater surveillance.

Most states have instead turned to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant program that has doled out $35.8 million since September 2020 through its Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Cooperative Agreement. 

The administration is also working with utility organizations. In April, the CDC awarded a $10.2 million, 11-month contract to Massachusetts-based Biobot Analytics, transferring 226 sites that fellow wastewater firm LuminUltra Technologies established under an earlier agreement.

But health officials will have to play the long game. LuminUltra recruited fewer than half of the 500 contracted utilities, and the technology does not reach many rural areas that lack communal sewage systems. 

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