A new bill could require California to monitor wastewater for disease in the Central Valley
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State Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) is frustrated by the lack of wastewater monitoring for H5N1 bird flu in the state’s most at risk communities: regions of the Central Valley where dairy workers, dairy herds and commercial poultry operations are most concentrated.
On Tuesday, she introduced a bill to fix that. Called the Wastewater Surveillance Act, if passed, it would require at least one wastewater monitoring site in every California county. The bill would require the state’s department of public health to expand its current wastewater network, known as Cal-SuWers, to include all counties “and prioritize underserved and high-risk areas.”
California is ground zero for the H5N1 bird flu virus in dairy cattle and dairy workers. Since the virus was first reported in dairy herds in March 2024, California has accounted for 77% of all U.S. dairy herd infections and 38 of the nation’s 68 human cases.
Hurtado has said her father and niece were both sickened last summer by an unknown respiratory virus. She said they live in the Central Valley near poultry and dairy operations — but they were not tested for H5N1.
The Central Valley, where the majority of California dairy herds are located, has been center of the outbreak. However, when it comes to wastewater surveillance — which health officials use to alert them to the presence and concentration of pathogens, such as H5N1, seasonal influenza, COVID-19 and norovirus — little is being done in this area of the state to monitor for the virus.
In fact, it’s nonexistent in some of the counties most at risk, including Tulare and Kings.
In California, health officials say they are monitoring 78 sites in 36 counties for a range of viruses; in all but two sites they say they are looking for bird flu.
“We have a bird flu outbreak. It’s running amok among dairy cattle and herds which are largely in the Central Valley,” said Hurtado. “And right now we don’t have any waste monitor, wastewater monitoring going on there. This law would change that.”
