Nassau testing wastewater for drugs like oxycodone, cocaine and heroin, a first for the county

Nassau County is for the first time testing wastewater for opioids and illicit drugs, an expansion of a program that previously just tested for COVID-19.

Researchers from Stony Brook University's Center for Clean Water Technology will test 18 wastewater samples per week from nine different sewage treatment plants across Nassau County. The testing will scan for 26 drugs like opioids and for diseases such as measles, cholera and tuberculosis.

Researchers began testing for opioids and illicit drugs on Dec. 8, and they will start testing for diseases next month. It follows a national effort to monitor the opioid crisis by using sewage data to track which drugs are being used in certain communities, and gauge whether prevention programs are working.

CCWT has been testing the levels of viruses like COVID-19 in Long Island’s wastewater since the pandemic began, according to Christopher Gobler, a professor at Stony Brook University and lead researcher of the program. 

“Nassau County was interested in expanding this effort, recognizing the promise of wastewater-based epidemiology as a public health tool,” Gobler wrote in an email.

Nassau Health Commissioner Dr. Irina Gelman “continues to take the lead in monitoring wastewater for evidence of diseases, bacteria and substances such as opioids that would give us a head start on any outbreak or epidemic,” County Executive Bruce Blakeman said in a statement. 

Wastewater testing technology has been used to track other crises across the country. New York State officials used wastewater to detect polio in 2022 and officials in San Francisco and other major cities started using it last year to identify fentanyl.

Last year, a wastewater epidemiology company called Biobot Analytics received funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to test for high-risk substances at 70 waste treatment plants in 43 states. It was the first program of its kind in the United States, mirroring similar programs in Europe and Australia.

Nassau’s testing program is being funded by more than $250,000 from its opioid lawsuit settlement and more than $190,000 from the American Rescue Plan Act, a federal COVID-era stimulus package that will dry up at the end of the month. Lawmakers voted unanimously to approve the funding in their last meeting of the year on Dec. 16.

Nassau has barely used its share of the 2021 landmark settlement against opioid manufacturers and distributors. Long Island earned $13.4 million as part of those settlements. But officials have spent just a fraction of that money — less than 4% — on the intended purpose of drug abuse prevention, treatment and education in Nassau and Suffolk counties, a Newsday investigation found.

Drug overdose deaths dropped 16% in Nassau and 12% in Suffolk last year, in part due to wider availability of Narcan and a crackdown on fentanyl trafficking, Newsday previously reported. Still, there were 463 drug overdose deaths in Suffolk last year and 210 deaths in Nassau.

“Until there are no fatalities, we are still experiencing this epidemic,” Kurt Hall, director of a drug treatment site in Port Jefferson, previously told Newsday.

More than 107,000 people in the U.S. died of a drug overdose in 2022.

“Nassau County is gaining access to vital data we can use to protect the public and swiftly respond to a health emergency such as a spike in opioid drugs or a measles outbreak,” Minority Leader Legis. Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D-Glen Cove) said in a statement. “I am happy the County is taking advantage of this cutting-edge technology.”