A wastewater sample is collected for laboratory analysis at a treatment facility. | Image by Alona Siniehina/Shutterstock.
Participating Texas sites recorded the highest average cocaine concentration among states in the White House’s first wastewater-based drug report, with Dallas County joining El Paso and Webb counties among the five sampled counties with the highest levels in April 2026.
The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released the report Friday as part of the Trump administration’s effort to build a national early-warning system for illegal drug threats. The project analyzed wastewater from more than 100 counties covering about 18% of the U.S. population, quantified more than 20 drugs and screened for more than 500 substances in select counties.
Texas sites dominate cocaine hotspot list
The state-level analysis found that participating Texas sites had the highest average concentration of benzoylecgonine, the cocaine metabolite measured in wastewater, in April. Texas also ranked in the top 20% of sampled states for cocaine during all 16 months from January 2025 through April 2026.
At the county level, Dallas, El Paso and Webb counties appeared with Franklin County, Vermont, and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, in the report’s five highest cocaine concentration profiles for April. Four of the five counties were in the South, including the three in Texas.
The finding does not mean all of Dallas County or Texas had those levels. The report said states contributed samples from between one and nine counties, while counties varied in the number and location of participating wastewater sites. ONDCP said the results identify possible hotspots for closer examination and should not serve as representative measurements for an entire state or county.
Biobot Analytics collected and analyzed the samples and provided ONDCP with aggregated data at the county level or higher, according to the report’s supplement.
New system tracks emerging threats
“Wastewater testing provides near real-time data to guide and shape a proactive approach to illicit drug threats,” ONDCP Director Sara Carter said in a press release provided to The Dallas Express.
Across sampled sites, national and regional concentrations of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine declined from January through April 2026. The longer trend showed fentanyl peaked in 2023 and has declined since, cocaine fell again in 2026 after fluctuating, and methamphetamine remained roughly steady since 2023.
The program’s qualitative screening found ketamine in all 101 counties tested for it, tianeptine in 77% of counties, xylazine in 61% and carfentanil in 54%. Qualitative testing identifies whether a substance is present but does not measure its concentration.
The report puts into operation a central data goal of the 2026 National Drug Control Strategy. As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the plan called for national-scale wastewater testing, faster public warnings and modernized data collection.
Separate Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data released June 17 predicted 69,147 U.S. overdose deaths for the 12 months ending January 2026, a 13.2% decline from the previous year.