MO: A New School Surveillance Idea

Missouri is going to start watching school wastewater for drugs.

Wastewater monitoring is not an entirely new idea. Here in PA, we've been looking at monitoring K-12 school wastewater for indications of Covid in the school. 

But in Missouri, a $7 million project is being launched to monitor wastewater for fentanyl and other drugs. $4 million of that goes to monitoring K-12 wastewater in schools, while $3 million will go to "wastewater testing involving law enforcement efforts." Superintendents across the state received an e-mail inviting them to sign on for the project. 

"Through the collection of one small wastewater sample per week, schools will receive near real-time insights into local substance misuse trends at no cost and with no additional responsibilities for your staff," said Mark James, director of the Department of Public Safety in the email.

Mike O'Connell of the Missouri Department of Public Safety told Missourinet that 40 schools have signed up and twelve have already begun the weekly testing. 

“By doing weekly testing, you’ll be able to track trends and then the data are shared with the schools and then the schools can look at what types of programs they want to implement, and some may decide that it’s a bigger problem than they anticipated,” said O’Connell.

Asked if the data would also be shared with law enforcement, O'Connell replied that there was nothing contractually to prevent that sharing. “But I believe that that is still being worked out.”

The company contracted for the work is Stercus Bioanalytics, a company already doing similar wastewater analysis in other states. They belong to Mighty Good Solutions, LLC, a company that includes a variety of products from antibacterial wipes (Wipe Those Hands and Wipe That Tush are actual MGS company names that I did not make up), diagnostic kits, and household products like Pizza Saver, toothbrush head covers (Germ Guard) and measuring spoons. Mighty Good was founded in 2012 in Kansas City and started out making "plastic consumer goods." When COVID hit, they started making and donating medical face shields for hospitals and health professionals, then moved into health and hygiene products. The founder Ben Rendo and his company seem like swell folks.

Wastewater testing, particularly when it doesn't require the school to do anything except look at the data, could be useful. Testing wastewater for fentanyl use has been around for several years now. Nobody seems to be questioning its accuracy. Commenting on the practice in 2024, Jeffrey Brent, MD, PhD, a distinguished clinical professor in the CU Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine and a national leader in medical toxicology research, pointed out the danger of stigmatizing an entire community. "Such stigmatization has implications for factors like real estate prices, the likelihood of community improvement related to the willingness of businesses to establish themselves locally, and community gentrification.”

Is that a possible problem for schools? Probably. I'm wondering what happens to a student who is applying for college from a "notorious druggie school." I'm more concerned that the results could be used as an excuse for law enforcement to land on a school with both feet. 

I get that if a school has a fentanyl problem, it is better for school leaders to know than to not know. But every time someone comes up with a new way to put students under surveillance, I have concerns. When we collect data about young humans, the Law of Unintended Consequences always seems to kick in. We should keep an eye on how this pilot program pans out.