The kick-off to the movie Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation was that Tom Cruise needed to intercept nerve gas being smuggled through Belarus.
From there, terrorists could have deployed the gas to any major metro area or its water supply, killing hundreds of thousands.
The movie is now 10 years old, which illustrates how long this threat has been common knowledge. Luckily, we have the capacity to counter a broad range of threats – foreign and domestic, natural and man-made – if we don't let our existing tools collapse.
Wastewater monitoring is one such tool.
It allows us to monitor wastewater in sewage facilities, track infectious diseases such as measles and pathogens in our water, and measure their spread across the nation to monitor any potential outbreak.
Established in 2021, the nation's wastewater monitoring program has operated at a budget of $125 million annually, which sounds like a lot until you consider its reach is felt in all 50 states, plus local jurisdictions, territories, and tribal communities.
However, that money ran out at the end of September.
If Congress doesn't act now to renew that funding, Americans will lose access to the critical early warnings provided by wastewater monitoring, leaving our country and communities vulnerable to emerging threats, whether they're infectious diseases or actual biological warfare.
We can't just shrug our shoulders and let that happen, we have to restore funding for this line of national defense.
This risk was spelled out horrifyingly in a recent piece by Republican-appointed former FDA commissioners Dr. Scott Gottlieb and Dr. Mark McClellan, who highlighted the importance of wastewater monitoring to keeping the country safe:
"The scope of the danger was recently underscored by 38 scientists working in nine countries, who warned in an extraordinary article published in the journal Science of the prospect of "mirror bacteria" — synthetic organisms whose molecular structures are reverse-engineered to render our current armament of anti-infective drugs useless.
"Until not long ago, such synthetic engineering lay beyond our scientific reach. Now, these novel and potentially deadly pathogens could be crafted in labs within a decade."
Through the Cold War, we feared that any tinpot dictator could have a nuclear weapon. This fear may have been exaggerated, as the only such dictator with nukes is pretty effectively boxed into North Korea. The 21st century fear is that any much more affordable bioweapons lab could be the next Wuhan.
Wastewater monitoring is a critical tool to protecting the health of American families, empowering local communities to guard against infectious diseases and other emerging threats.
Since our national wastewater program monitors sewage and similar facilities, it doesn't require any individual testing, which means the data is anonymous and much cheaper to gather.
Given the increasing risk of deliberate biosecurity threats, we can't ignore this layer of protection any more than we could all go a week without washing our hands.
Given its successful four-year track record, wastewater monitoring is a smart and efficient investment – not only does this save us money by detecting health threats earlier, but this is also not a new program and does not require building anything new.
We just need to sustain it.
If Congress does not continue funding, we will lose the investment we have already made in this system – while also signaling to bioterrorists that we've let down our guard.
Modern threats require ongoing vigilance and resources.
We don't need Tom Cruise, we just need this effective wastewater monitoring program – which honestly only costs about as much per year as Tom made in the last Mission Impossible.
The CDC doesn't have the best reputation among conservatives right now.
The aggressiveness of the 2020 lockdowns because of the flu, excuse me "pandemic," is still being felt, with economic and psychological damage still felt five years later.
However, we can't undo the damage done by overeager CDC bureaucrats by hindering public servants who actually are improving the health of our communities.
We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater – or in this case wastewater.
Jared Whitley is a longtime politico who has worked in the U.S. Senate, White House, and defense industry. He has an MBA from Hult business school in Dubai. In 2024 he won the Top of the Rockies Best Columnist award. Read Jared Whitley's Reports — More Here.