The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation requested $3 million at this year’s budget meeting for a program to test wastewater. It would start in Knoxville.
“It’s not just enforcement but more of an education and prevention effort,” Rausch said in that hearing. “Everything from health, mental health, TDEC, I mean, all of us who are in this fight, this would be something that would potentially give us a better understanding prior to the overdose deaths.”
In this year’s budget meeting, Rausch proposed the program to test wastewater using a company called Stercus Bioanalytics.
“This is scary Big Brother stuff, but we’ll see where it goes,” said Don Bosch, a legal analyst for WBIR. “I’m just afraid that in government zeal to deal with this, that they could tread on personal liberties if they take subsequent steps after a positive test from wastewater that might encroach on an individual’s privacy and constitutional rights. That concerns me …