City of Laredo to explore possible wastewater-monitoring program to identify drug trends

LAREDO, TX. (KGNS) - The City of Laredo is looking into adding a new way to combat the use of illicit drugs.

This new approach aims to target areas that report high levels of drugs in their water supply.

In the past months, the city has implemented a series of harm reduction strategies to combat drug usage in our community.

This March, Laredo saw double the number of overdose deaths when compared to March of 2023.

The city has been in partnership with Biobot, a company contracted to monitor wastewater supply for infectious diseases. Now the city is hoping to add a second layer of screening.

According to Laredo Health Director Dr. Richard Chamberlain, the added level of screening would test wastewater for the use of high-risk drugs such as fentanyl.

“We are able to identify the different areas of the city where public health interventions can be initiated to reduce the level of persons that are suffering or using substances in our community,” said Dr. Chamberlain.

Chamberlain specifies that areas with higher levels of illicit drugs in their wastewater supply could then receive higher amounts of outreach.

Laredo Police Chief Miguel Rodriguez explains that for the police department, a targeted approach will help them better protect the community from having access to these substances.

“The problem is any time you look at a heat map and you see several overdoses in that area there’s got to be a dealer that is in that area that is selling the drug with fentanyl,” said Chief Rodriguez. “That’s where the police department focuses a lot on those heat maps because it will tell us exactly where we need to focus on.”

The chief of police states some areas of concern are west Laredo, downtown, and parts of central Laredo.

We’ll keep you posted on the development of this approach.

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