Section 1. Short title
This Act may be cited as the Surveilling Effluent Water for Epidemic Response Act or the SEWER Act.
(a) In general
Subtitle C of title XXVIII of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following:
(a) National wastewater surveillance system
The Secretary, acting through the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in coordination with Federal departments and agencies and relevant State and local departments and agencies, shall expand, intensify, and coordinate the activities of the National Wastewater Surveillance System to detect and monitor pathogens in wastewater, such as SARS–CoV–2, influenza, mpox, dengue, West Nile virus, and respiratory syncytial virus.
(b) Rule of construction
Nothing in the amendment made by subsection (a) shall be construed as requiring a wastewater utility or service provider to comply with a request for wastewater surveillance.