BY RICHARD SKOLNIK
White Rock

The County does many things well, which I greatly appreciate. Few enjoy our wonderful parks, for example, as much as I do. However, the County also does some things poorly, such as the management of its wastewater surveillance program.

Despite extensive advocacy by community members, the County appears perpetually unable to manage competently its small wastewater surveillance program.

We are in RSV season. In addition, we have entered flu season. We also expect a “winter wave” of COVID.

Yet, despite these facts and the immediate importance of timely surveillance data:

The County published data for November 5 that made no sense, and which suggested we were in the midst of a massive COVID outbreak that was not the case. The data on influenza for that week also made no sense.

The County said it would inquire from the vendor about the nonsensical data but, almost two months later, the County has not posted any additional information about it.

The County often posts data that is too late to be useful to community members. CDC is now posting data from its national surveillance program from December 21. Our latest data is from December 10.

The County has an ethical, as well as a professional obligation, to manage this program properly, since the data concerns people’s health and well-being. It appears that the County still does not understand this obligation.

I strongly encourage the new County Council to assert its authority and insist to the County Manager that she take steps to ensure the sound management of this program. In most regards, this program is a “small matter”. However, the way the County has handled it in the last year speaks loudly about an unacceptable gap in the County’s professional and ethical obligations to our community.