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Public health advocates press Kings County to add wastewater surveillance amid H5N1 concerns; health staff say contract coming
Summary
A public-health advocate urged the Board to prioritize wastewater surveillance for H5N1; county public health staff said the county will contract with an outside provider and expects the agreement within a month or two.
During the Jan. 7 Kings County Board of Supervisors meeting, Claire Fidiasi of Valley Voices urged the board to prioritize wastewater surveillance as part of the county’s response to the H5N1 bird‑flu emergency.
Fidiasi, public health program director for Valley Voices, told supervisors the virus “poses significant risks to public health” and that wastewater surveillance is a proven early‑detection tool that can identify viral markers and help direct resources to hotspots.
Rosemary Rand, a Kings County Department of Public Health representative, responded during the unscheduled appearances period, saying the county had performed wastewater surveillance previously through the City of Hanford. Rand said staffing changes at Hanford halted that collection and that county staff lack the required skill set to collect samples. She told the board the department is “in process of setting up a contract with an outside provider to be doing wastewater. So we should have that executed in the next month or 2.”
Board members did not take formal action on the public comment; no motion or vote on wastewater surveillance was recorded in the meeting minutes for Jan. 7.
The public health correspondence packet distributed to the board also flagged a Proposition 65 hazardous materials alert related to an incident at the J.G. Boswell shop in December, which county staff included in the correspondence section of the agenda.
