Dubuque Water Resource and Recovery Center launches wastewater disease monitoring program

Dubuque Water Resource and Recovery Center launches wastewater disease monitoring programThe Iowa municipality is leveraging its wastewater infrastructure to track respiratory infections like COVID-19, influenza, and RSV, providing early warning data for public health officials.

The Dubuque Water Resource and Recovery Center is collecting weekly wastewater samples for disease monitoring.

Samples are analyzed at no cost by the state hygienic lab and reported to the CDC's wastewater monitoring dashboard.

The program tracks non-reportable respiratory diseases to validate community health trends and provide early warnings to local hospitals.

The City of Dubuque, Iowa, has integrated its wastewater infrastructure into a broader public health surveillance network, initiating a wastewater monitoring program at its Water Resource and Recovery Center. During the city's Fiscal Year 2027 budget meeting on April 22, 2026, Public Health Director Mary Rose Corrigan outlined the new initiative, which began the previous fall. The program focuses on tracking respiratory infections, including COVID-19, influenza A and B, and RSV, by analyzing municipal wastewater. Under the program, the Dubuque Water Resource and Recovery Center collects weekly wastewater samples. These samples are sent to the state hygienic lab, which conducts the analysis at no cost to the city. The data is subsequently reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for inclusion on its national wastewater monitoring dashboard. Corrigan noted that the wastewater data has so far mirrored the disease trends observed in the broader community. Because many respiratory diseases are not mandatorily reportable, wastewater epidemiology provides critical predictive data and validates community health observations. The findings are regularly shared with local hospitals and public health partners. The monitoring program will operate year-round, serving as an ongoing early warning system for the municipality's public health and safety network.