Wastewater monitoring at Sani 5 stalled by county funding, testing partner

Plans to monitor infectious diseases in wastewater on the Tiburon Peninsula have hit a snag after Marin Public Health’s surveillance partner temporarily stopped accepting new sites.

South San Francisco-based life-sciences company Verily, part of Google’s parent company Alphabet, recently won a five-year, $38 million contract with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In taking over the National Wastewater Surveillance System, the company is collecting samples from hundreds of wastewater-treatment plants across the country.

“I’m thinking this pause in taking additional sites is related to their recent contract … so I am hopeful that we may have the possibility of Verily-sponsored sites again beginning in 2024,” Haylea Hannah, senior department analyst for Marin Public Health, told Sanitary District No. 5 of Marin officials by email.

Hannah and Verily representatives did not return a request for comment by The Ark’s press time, but District Manager Tony Rubio said he hopes his agency, which serves southern Tiburon and Belvedere, can join the county program sometime this year.

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