wastewater surveillance

What surprises lurk in our sewage? How did racist city planners end up saving Black lives? Why does Arizona grow hay for cows in Saudi Arabia? Three strange stories about the most fundamental substance we all take for granted.

• SOURCES:
  • Brian Beach, professor of economics at Vanderbilt University.
  • Marc Johnson, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
  • Amy Kirby, program lead for the National Wastewater Surveillance System at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Natalie Koch, professor of geography at Syracuse University.

• RESOURCES:
  • Arid Empire: The Entangled Fates of Arizona and Arabia, by Natalie Koch (2023).
  • "How a Saudi Firm Tapped a Gusher of Water in Drought-Stricken Arizona," by Isaac Stanley-Becker, Joshua Partlow, and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez (The Washington Post, 2023).
  • "Arizona Is in a Race to the Bottom of Its Water Wells, With Saudi Arabia’s Help," by Natalie Koch (The New York Times, 2022).
  • "Tracing the Origin of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-Like Spike Sequences Detected in Wastewater," by Martin Shafer, Devon Gregory, Marc Johnson, et al. (medRxiv, 2022).
  • "Water and Waste: A History of Reluctant Policymaking in U.S. Cities," by Brian Beach (Working Paper, 2022).
  • Water, Race, and Disease, by Werner Troesken (2004).
  • COVID Data Tracker: Wastewater Surveillance, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• EXTRAS:
  • "What Is Sportswashing (and Does It Work)?" by Freakonomics Radio (2022).
  • "Covid-19," series by Freakonomics Radio (2020-2021).

Oh boy. This episode may seeeeem crappy but it is certainly not a waste of your time. We’re not kidding, while the episode is of course wonderful, mostly thanks to our wonderful guests, it is also certainly about poopy wastewater and what we can all learn from it. About those terrific guests: we mostly speak with Dr. Amy E. Kirby, Ph.D., MPH of the frickin’ CDC (yes, that CDC) about the National Wastewater Surveillance System or NWSS. Did you know sewer water is not just a feature of teenage mutant ninja turtle habitats? Epidemiologists have been using the contents of our collectively owned chocolate waterfall to track disease since polio, but it was only in response to COVID-19 that the CDC launched the NWSS “to coordinate and build the nation’s capacity to track the presence of SARS-CoV-2.” So we learn a bit about what all that means, as we talk weird waste, medication levels in the water, whether or not “silent but deadly” is flim flam, and more in this absolutely gushing sluicegate of an ep.

BUT WAIT. That’s not all. We got two little extra guests! First up, your ol’ Dadward did a prank call on Amy Narimatsu of Shorerivers.org, so she has a fun little cameo, and we conclude with previous virology guest, Dr. Shannon Bennett, of the California Academy of Sciences to discuss what’s happening with COVID these days, and why it’s important to stay safe for those who still need protection.

It’s an absolutely bursting septic tank of an episode so… Hang on to your butts.

Follow the CDC on Twitter

Learn more about the CDC's National Wastewater Surveillance System

Follow Dr. Bennett on Twitter

A donation was made this week to ShoreRivers

Sponsors of Ologies

Transcripts and bleeped episodes

Smologies (short, classroom-safe) episodes

Become a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a month

OlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, masks, totes!

Follow @Ologies on Twitter and Instagram

Follow @AlieWard on Twitter and Instagram

Sound editing by Jarrett Sleeper of MindJam Media

Transcripts by Emily White of The Wordary

Website by Kelly R. Dwyer

Theme song by Nick Thorburn