Wastewater monitoring (WWM) is a population-level public health tool used to monitor community health and detect emerging threats. When used with other disease monitoring systems, it can paint a comprehensive picture of community-level infections and help inform public health action. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the widespread development and expansion of wastewater monitoring across the United States. Today, local health departments (LHDs) across the country use wastewater monitoring to monitor pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2, influenza A and B, Respiratory syncytial virus, and more.
If your jurisdiction is new to wastewater monitoring and looking for guidance on how to develop or expand a program, knowing where to start can feel intimidating. Wastewater monitoring is a dynamic tool that can be used in a variety of different ways at a wide range of scales depending on the needs of your health department and community.
The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), with support from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, presents a new tool to support LHDs: Getting Started with Wastewater Monitoring: A Checklist for Local Health Departments. This checklist provides practical first steps for identifying the needs of your WWM program, connecting with the right partners, and accessing useful resources. The recommendations from this checklist were developed based on feedback from LHDs who have built wastewater monitoring programs and participated in the 2025 cohort of the NACCHO WWM mentorship program.
NACCHO members can access the checklist for free HERE.
Visit www.naccho.org/wash to explore a variety of other wastewater monitoring resources, including a resource library, Community of Practice, and reports from past cohorts of the NACCHO mentorship program.
