Sacramento County could soon begin scanning sewage for fentanyl, under California bill

A new bill being considered by California lawmakers would require local sanitation agencies to collect sewage samples in order to test for fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and morphine.

Assembly Bill 3073, by Assemblyman Matt Haney, D-San Francisco, would require the State Water Resources Control Board to create a program to seek out epidemiological data on the illicit substances from wastewater.

Many counties in California, including Sacramento County, already do such testing for COVID-19 and other diseases. Some counties, like San Francisco, also currently do so for fentanyl, in response to the growing opioid overdose epidemic.

The proposed legislation calls for the testing of sewage at least twice a week, at a cost of up to $200 per test or up to $21,000 per year, with counties footing the bill, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“Wastewater drug testing empowers us to be proactive and respond effectively and immediately when we see spikes in certain areas or of particular drugs. The state cannot simply wait for people to die before we act,” said Haney, who chairs the Assembly Select Committee on Fentanyl, Opioid Addiction and Overdose Prevention, in a statement.

Fentanyl use has surged in California in recent years, and the death toll from the drug — which is 100 times more powerful than morphine — has risen as well.

In 2022, according to a California Department of Public Health dashboard, Sacramento County recorded 236 opioid oversode deaths, nearly 15 people per 100,000. Placer County recorded 55 deaths, 13.6 per 100,000, while El Dorado County recorded 36 deaths, or 20 per 100,000.

There were nearly 1 million opioid prescriptions in those three counties in 2022, according to CDPH data.

The idea of scanning wastewater for drug use isn’t new. Europe has been doing so for two decades, according to Haney’s office.

In 2018, the company Biobot began checking for opioids in wastewater in Cary, North Carolina, according to Time. Last fall, the company teamed up with the National Institute of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse to launch a program in 70 municipalities across the country, including in San Francisco.

But if AB 3073 becomes law, it would make California the first state to mandate such testing on a statewide level in order to combat the opioid crisis, according to Haney’s office.

“Other countries have proven that testing wastewater for illicit drugs allows public health departments to identify trends in drug use in neighborhoods and proactively target public health interventions in communities before overdose deaths occur,” Haney said.