[aardvark92]

Folks have been testing wastewater for legal and illegal drugs for years (https://score-cost.eu has an interesting report if you're interested).

There's been talk amongst Police Departments in whether investing in wide scale wastewater monitoring could help locate drug dealers/labs. Personally, I think this is a huge invasion of privacy, but since wastewater is a "public good" police currently can do whatever they want with it (source: I work in a wastewater testing facility).

[onecommentman]

Prudence might be as big a concern. If the public gets used to reports on waste streams, it would be an easy target for those who wish to create fear and panic among the populace.

As easy as one bad actor flushing the wrong/right stuff a few times (stuff that is known to be monitored, say a specific infectious agent) in a few public toilets across a city, and waiting for the reports to trickle in. More of a fanning the flames rather than starting a panic, since the threat would have been well-known enough to have been monitored in the first place.

So maybe keep those waste reports on a need-to-know basis, rather than broadcasting a public “daily waste report”.

[chiefalchemist]

Yes. I'm aware of that. The arc of mmy point is collateral damage. Are we saving some lives and ruining others?