Sewage sleuths helped an Arizona town beat back Covid-19. For wastewater epidemiology, that’s just the start
GUADALUPE, Ariz. — Valerie Molina anxiously searched the desert sky, scanning the horizon for any clouds dark with rain. But all was blue and bright. Today, the weather wasn’t going to be on her side.
It was March 20, 2020, and Guadalupe, over which Molina presides as mayor, was preparing for what should have been the third of six Friday ceremonies in the run-up to Easter. Normally, it’s the time of year when the town of 6,700 doubles in size, as spectators from across the state descend on its white adobe church to witness young men in wooden masks, a sacred deer antler headdress, and ankle rattles made from the cocoons of butterflies dance to beating drums beneath ribbons of flowers. Guadalupe was founded by Pascua Yaqui Indians who were forced from their homelands in Sonora, Mexico, and settled in the Salt River Valley in the early 1900s, bringing with them their unique religion — a blend of spiritual animism and Catholic beliefs picked up from Jesuit missionaries.
