NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — It should come as no surprise that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation wants to cut down on illicit drug use. What perhaps is surprising is where that information would come from.
Earlier this week, TBI Director David Rausch pitched the idea for a 30-week pilot program, to study wastewater to be able to track the use of illegal drugs.
"Specifically, the type of drug and the amount of that drug that are in the system," said Rausch, during state budget hearings. "For example, at a high school, they’ll go in and pull that water, and they will test it to see what is going on there. And they will be able to show us the amount, say it’s high use of marijuana, they’ll be able to see that based on the output."
The pilot would be based in Knoxville and allow a company to test wastewater at 16 dorms, 12 public high schools and at 120 other locations they could select.
"So that then becomes a great piece for those administrators at the school to be able to educate parents and make this aware this is an issue," said Rausch.
But the TBI director said it could also be used for criminal enforcement.
"If we have an area where we have drug complaints, we can have them test the water in that area. They wouldn’t be able to tell me the exact house, but they can tell me from a selection of four houses. Then, our work on [intelligence] and observation, we would be able to tell where the house is," he said.
The technique became common in America back during the pandemic, when wastewater could be tested to determine the number of infections and what types of COVID variants were prevalent.
NewsChannel 5 found that 70 other communities across the country, through their public health departments, monitor drug use through wastewater. But it's unclear if other law enforcement agencies have considered this move.
We did ask the TBI if wastewater findings could be used to press charges.
"While the technology may provide some investigative leads, the priority for this endeavor would be to better monitor emergent public safety issues," wrote Josh DeVine, Communications Director for the TBI. "Doing so would allow us to work with other stakeholders to potentially identify hot spots and emerging trends in faster, hyper-local way to better focus overdose prevention and education efforts."
The price tag of this project isn't anything to just flush away either.
If the governor and state lawmakers approve, it would cost $3 million for a 30-week trial run.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at Chris.Davis@newschannel5.com.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
