On 24 September 2026, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally recognised six public-health departments as the leads of its new Wastewater Monitoring Centers of Excellence, a national network tasked with turning sewage data into early-warning intelligence for infectious-disease outbreaks Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). The six lead agencies — based in California, Colorado, Houston, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin — will work with named university partners to support nearly every U.S. state, territory and major local jurisdiction Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
Key takeaways
- CDC recognised six lead agencies, in California, Colorado, Houston, New York, North Carolina and Wisconsin, on 24 September 2026 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
- Funding flows through the ELC cooperative agreement, which competitively selected and funded each site Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
- Each lead agency works with a named academic partner: Stanford and Emory (California), University of Denver (Colorado), Rice University (Houston), Syracuse University (New York), UNC-Chapel Hill (North Carolina), and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
- The six centres together cover U.S. states, the District of Columbia, territories such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and jurisdictions including New York City, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia and Los Angeles County Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
- Each centre will support "collaborative partnerships with academic and utility partners" in its assigned region Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
What happened: a federally funded hub-and-spoke network
The CDC page, last updated on 24 September 2026, sets out a hub-and-spoke model in which a single lead public-health agency in each region coordinates a Center of Excellence, paired with one or two named academic partners, and reaches out to surrounding state, territorial and city health departments Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). The leads and their academic pairings, as listed by the CDC, are the California Department of Public Health with Stanford University and Emory University; the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment with the University of Denver; the Houston Health Department with Rice University; the New York Health Department with Syracuse University; the North Carolina Health Department with the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services with the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
CDC states the sites were "competitively selected and funded" through the Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for the Prevention and Control of Emerging Infectious Diseases (ELC) cooperative agreement Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). The programme is built around "collaborative partnerships with academic and utility partners," wording that explicitly puts municipal utilities inside the working group, not just researchers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
What the geographic coverage looks like
| Center of Excellence | Lead agency | Academic partner(s) | States, territories and localities supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | California Department of Public Health | Stanford University, Emory University | Alaska, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Marshall Islands, Nevada, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Palau, Washington |
| Colorado | Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment | University of Denver | Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming |
| Houston | Houston Health Department | Rice University | Arkansas, District of Columbia, Chicago, Houston, Louisiana, Los Angeles County, Maricopa County, New Mexico, New York City, Oklahoma, Philadelphia, Texas |
| New York | New York Health Department | Syracuse University | Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vermont |
| North Carolina | North Carolina Health Department | University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee |
| Wisconsin | Wisconsin Department of Health Services | University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee | Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin |
The CDC page was last reviewed by subject-matter experts, and updates may include "minor edits, image changes, or other modifications to page content" Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). No capital cost, equipment list or rollout timetable is published on the page; CDC presents the centres as a coordination and analytical layer over the wastewater monitoring work that utilities and health departments already carry out.
Specification read: what this means for a plant team
For the buyer, the question is not how much concrete is being poured — the CDC does not publish a capital figure for this programme — but which stage of the treatment train is now inside a federally funded conversation. Wastewater surveillance sits ahead of full secondary treatment: it depends on a representative 24-hour composite sample taken at the headworks or the influent grit channel, then on a chain of concentration, RNA extraction and PCR or sequencing steps. In other words, it is bolted onto the front end of the plant — screening and primary treatment — and it does not require utilities to add biological reactors, membrane skids or disinfection stages just to participate. The CDC page is explicit that the centres advance their work through "collaborative partnerships with academic and utility partners," which means a municipal utility that owns the influent stream is the asset, not a contractor Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
For a Municipal operator, the practical shift is governance rather than hydraulics: each plant that feeds a sewer shed now sits inside a defined region, with a named lead agency and a named university partner expected to set sampling cadence, share assay protocols and route data. Plants that already run autosamplers and SCADA exports are best placed to be onboarded cheaply; plants that rely on manual grabs will see the case for an autosampler upgrade sharpened. For utilities weighing whether to specify dedicated surveillance sample lines, the more useful buyer metric is the population the plant serves rather than a flow figure, because surveillance coverage is typically denominated in people covered per site, and the CDC page does not publish a flow number for the programme.
For an operator running a membrane bioreactor plant whose discharge permit already demands tight BOD, COD and total nitrogen limits, the announcement does not change the equipment specification, but it does formalise a second customer — the public-health agency — for the same influent data stream. Operators working through a new effluent treatment plant procurement can now ask vendors whether their proposed treatment train leaves a clear, accessible tap at the headworks for a sampler. Plants considering a biological step rebuild or an MBR retrofit should similarly plan a dedicated sampling manifold rather than retrofit one later.
Recognition framing for an enquiry: if your plant is a municipal works of roughly 20–200 MLD (general industry range, not from the sources) with conventional activated sludge or MBR secondary treatment, in a U.S. state, territory or city covered by one of the six centres, expect your health-department counterpart to ask for routine influent composite samples and may offer funded analytical support through the relevant Center of Excellence — your procurement move is to keep the headworks accessible and to standardise on an autosampler that can hand a 24-hour composite to an academic partner.
FAQ
Which six agencies are leading the Wastewater Monitoring Centers of Excellence?
CDC lists the California Department of Public Health, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Houston Health Department, the New York Health Department, the North Carolina Health Department and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov).
How are the centres funded and on what timetable?
CDC says the sites were "competitively selected and funded" through the ELC cooperative agreement, but the published page does not give award values, contract durations or go-live dates Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). Operators planning an upgrade should treat any lead-time figure from the supplier as a general industry range, not from the sources.
What does a municipal utility actually have to supply to participate?
CDC's page frames the work through "collaborative partnerships with academic and utility partners" and does not publish an equipment list Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). In practice that means a representative influent sampling point and a route to share data; capital cost for a basic autosampler retrofit sits in the low five figures U.S. dollars for most small to mid-sized plants (general industry range, not from the sources).
Does this change which treatment stages a buyer should specify?
No new biological or tertiary stage is mandated by CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | CDC (.gov). The change sits at the headworks, so a buyer should require a dedicated, accessible composite-sampling tap upstream of grit removal as part of any greenfield specification rather than adding it later.
