Pueblo could soon test for drug use through your wastewater
PUEBLO, Colo. (KRDO) - The City of Pueblo could soon start tracking drug use through your wastewater. New technology can track the use of cocaine, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and even xylazine also known as "tranq". It’s all in hopes of combatting substance use in The Steel City.
You may remember how COVID-19 could be tracked through wastewater during the pandemic. Now, similar tools can be used to track drug use.
After you flush the toilet, shower, or use the sink in the City of Pueblo, your sewage is brought to the James Dilorio Water Reclamation Facility. Inside the facility it trickles down a ladder-looking device, called an influent, to filter out any random gunk. That's where the facility grabs a sample.
"After it's set up, typically, we'll receive those samples back to the lab. Those are tested for results are reported out as soon as that data is available," said Kait Hess Jimenez, a chemist from Biobot Analytics, the company that tests for the drugs.
Jimenez says the data that those samples produce are specific to the community, in this case, it would be Pueblo.
The Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment (PDPHE) found that substance use was one of the community's top health concerns. They say data from wastewater testing would be used to attack the issue. The data would also be posted for the public to see on the PDPHE website.
For a small town in North Carolina, it worked.
"So essentially in this town in North Carolina, it's Cary, North Carolina. They were deploying wastewater testing in their entire community," Hess Jimenez explained, "They went in with a hypothesis that their overdoses were related to things like fentanyl and heroin. But they actually came out getting data that supported their overdoses were coming from prescription drug cases. So things like oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, stuff like that."
The chemist explained how Cary, NC started to implement local community programs such as pill take-back programs to get those drugs out of people's homes.
"They saw overdoses decrease in their community by about 40%," said Hess Jimenez.
If this type of testing is used here it won’t cost the people of Pueblo a cent. The program will be paid for by a grant from the state.
The program is currently up in the air awaiting a vote from Pueblo City Council.
The ordinance is set to be voted on in City Council on Monday, Dec. 9, 2024.
