Making a difference for public health
Wastewater surveillance
It doesn’t really matter whether you call it wastewater-based disease surveillance, wastewater-based epidemiology, wastewater monitoring for public health, or something else: testing untreated wastewater for pathogen markers provides valuable public health information. But wastewater surveillance can’t happen without wastewater utilities. This website provides the information and tools that utilities and their health department partners need to enable sustained utility participation in wastewater surveillance programs.
WEF’s activities with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Explore what we are doing
Dedicated to enhancing wastewater surveillance accessibility for all utilities, we’re always in action—holding community of practice calls, providing free autosamplers and flow meters, running workshops and trainings, planning the Wastewater Disease Surveillance Summit, coordinating rapid testing pilot studies, and developing pathogen-specific factsheets and other no-cost resources to make it happen.
Meet the Utilities Community of Practice Advisory Council
As the larger of the two communities of practice hosted by WEF, the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) Utilities Community of Practice (CoP) is designed to promote sharing of lessons learned among utilities to accelerate the implementation of wastewater surveillance to support public health decision making. The activities of the NWSS Utilities CoP complement the other two NWSS CoPs: the NWSS Health Departments CoP hosted by the CDC and the NWSS Laboratories CoP hosted by the Association of Public Health Laboratories. WEF relies on the input from the Utilities CoP Advisory Council (CoPAC)—an incredible group of dedicated utility, academic, government, and association wastewater surveillance experts—to provide strategic guidance on the CoP mission, goals, objectives, structure, and governance.
Resources for all
Let us help you get the information you need
Listen to our Sewer Signals podcast or watch our Sewer Stories videos to hear your peers share their wastewater surveillance experiences. Read our four-step wastewater surveillance roadmap for wastewater utilities. Find out about our free autosampler and flow meter program. Catch up on our latest pathogen fact sheets. And learn more about the NWSS Utilities Community of Practice, including how to join.
Learn more about the barriers utilities face when participating in wastewater surveillance programs. Find strategies, best practices, and resources for forging strong partnerships with wastewater utilities. Get up to speed on wastewater terminology with our Wastewater 101 video series. Find out the latest about our rapid, onsite testing pilot programs.
For Everyone
Click through the FAQs on wastewater surveillance and browse our library of infographics, recent news, and learn about training and workshop opportunities. And make sure to view the U.S. CDC NWSS site for more resources and background information.