Riverside, California, firefighters and police safely rescued a man after he spent three days trapped roughly 20 feet down inside an 18-inch underground drainpipe. Emergency personnel responded to reports of someone screaming for help from a drainage tunnel near railroad tracks.
Crews spent around two hours assembling specialized equipment and clearing heavy debris that blocked access to the victim. Firefighters ultimately extracted the man through his original point of entry and he was transported to a local hospital in stable condition for treatment of unspecified injuries.
South Carolina Plant Operator Pleads Guilty to Concealing E. Coli Contamination
The senior manager for the Saluda (South Carolina) Commission of Public Works pleaded guilty in federal court Oct. 29 to Clean Water Act violations for concealing contamination. Federal investigators found that the manager intentionally diluted water samples to mask elevated E. coli levels caused by an inoperative chlorination system at the town's wastewater facility.
Facing up to three years in federal prison and fines reaching $50,000 per violation, the manager admitted to releasing untreated sewage directly into the Little Saluda River 10 to 12 times annually between 2022 and March 2025. A severe incident between July 27-28, 2025, resulted in the death of over 1,500 fish a mile downstream, triggering the federal probe.
Wastewater Surveillance Expands to Track Measles and Drug Resistance
According to the American Public Health Association, wastewater-based epidemiology in the U.S. has evolved from tracking COVID-19 into a broader public health surveillance tool, monitoring pathogens such as RSV, influenza, norovirus, mpox and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria.
At a recent session, “Wastewater-based Epidemiology: Advances and Future Direction in Wastewater Surveillance,” experts discussed how the wastewater epidemiology has grown. With over 4,800 U.S. measles cases reported by Nov. 1, states are increasingly using sewage testing for early outbreak intervention. Read more about it here.
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