jahred
@jahredwithanh.bsky.social
110 followers 160 following 51 posts
Interests in water, health, environment and everything in between | postdoctoral fellow at Harvard researching environmental health | https://scholar.harvard.edu/jmliddie/
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
Reposted by jahred
nytimes.com
Months before catastrophic floods swept through an Alaska Native village on Sunday, the Trump administration canceled a $20 million grant meant to protect the community from extreme flooding. At the time, the EPA administrator said he was eliminating "wasteful DEI and Environmental Justice grants."
E.P.A. Canceled $20 Million Flood Protection Grant to Alaska, Parts of Which Just Flooded
The remote village of Kipnuk planned to use the money to protect against flooding. On Sunday, it was inundated.
nyti.ms
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Work over several years has found these sites are major predictors of drinking water contamination of #foreverchemicals and they pose threats to environmental justice, including:

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Did we MAHA yet?
nytimes.com
The Department of Defense has quietly delayed its cleanup of harmful “forever chemicals” at nearly 140 military installations across the U.S., according to a list of sites analyzed by The New York Times.
Defense Department Delays Cleanup of ‘Forever Chemicals’ Nationwide
The new timeline could slow cleanup in some communities by nearly a decade. The chemicals, widely used in the military, are linked to cancers and other health risks.
nyti.ms
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
We conclude w/ more steps to get started: (1) user-engaged ID of benefits of a database (2) dev of data standards (3) training for citizen scientists on analysis of compiled DWQ data + tools (+ more!)

Grateful for my coauthors for dreaming big but practical & excited to see where it leads! 🔓🚰 🗺️
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
3: ML is increasingly used to bridge gaps in DWG sampling. It shows promise for advancing DWQ health studies

🗺️ vis tools can combine exposure "surfaces" + measured results. In future, "AI for social impact" tools can assist data compilation if the right collabs are made (env + CS + community)
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
2: our lit review found that existing studies often analyze data at non-ideal spatial scales, but they clearly support addressing nat'l DWQ racial/eth & socioeconomic disparities

🔓🚰 we propose combining DWQ + demographic at more "native" scales along w/ infra data, which are often inaccessible
Map of the US EPA drinking water non-compliance environmental justice index. This map shows percentiles of the drinking water non-compliance environmental justice index from the US EPA's Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool (US EPA 2024b). Scores reflect overlapping Safe Drinking Water Act violations by community water systems and populations of low-income or people of color, where high scores indicate higher environmental burdens.

Figure from Liddie, J. M.; Dai, M. Q.; Hu, X. C.; Sunderland, E. M. A Call for a Unified Database to Address Exposure Disparities in the United States. WIREs Water 2025, 12 (4), e70033. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.70033.
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
We break it down into 3 parts - each w/ status quo + immediate + future steps

1: we propose a combining extant DWQ datasets + describe challenges. Private well data are needed to make this complete + useful for all.

📊 as shown, any data compilation must acknowl + overcome limits in represent'ness
Breakdown of the number of community water systems nationwide and within recent Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR) datasets. Community water systems are public water systems that serve the same population year-round. Total active community water systems were enumerated using the Safe Drinking Water Information System (US EPA 2015c). Data from the third, fourth, and fifth cycles of UCMR are enumerated on the right (US EPA Office of Water 2015a, 2020a, 2024a).

Figure from Liddie, J. M.; Dai, M. Q.; Hu, X. C.; Sunderland, E. M. A Call for a Unified Database to Address Exposure Disparities in the United States. WIREs Water 2025, 12 (4), e70033. https://doi.org/10.1002/wat2.70033.
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Sharing our new perspective piece in WIREs Water. We propose a publicly accessible + unified drinking #water quality (DWQ) database to address exposure disparities even as fed support vanishes: doi.org/10.1002/wat2...

Goal: unify DWQ + infrastructure + demographic data w/ new data vis tools🚰 📊 🗺️
A Call for a Unified Database to Address Exposure Disparities in the United States
Federal cuts to research on environmental justice in the United States mean that addressing disparities in exposure to drinking water contaminants requires collaboration between academic, community, ...
doi.org
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Hi! Just flagging that the Google form allows for 300-character detailed explanations for the visualization, but not 300 words (as it says).
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Co-convening a session at the @agu.org meeting this Dec: "Harnessing Geospatial Data to Address Drinking Water Exposures and Public Health Impacts" 🚰🗺️

Welcoming topics @ intersections of hydrology, contaminant modeling, exposure, env justice, & health: bit.ly/4nFJ40M (July 30 ⏰)
AGU2025 flier on our session on "Harnessing Geospatial Data to Address Drinking Water Exposures and Public Health Impacts"
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
- Li 2025: Chrome Plating Facility Siting Is Associated with Neighborhood Demographic and Socioeconomic Factors and Elevated Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances in Blood in California
- Dobbin 2025: Recent Trends in Water System Consolidation: Lessons from California
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Continuing my monthly, dedicated time for paper-reading + hope posting will keep me honest. Goal: mix of fun + purpose w/ notetaking.

- Hernán 2010: The Hazards of Hazard Ratios (a reread!)
- Statmen-Weil 2020: Disparities in Community Water System Compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act
Reposted by jahred
blanphear.bsky.social
We need a story that reminds us our lives are stitched to the soil, the air, and the water—that every breath, every bite, every sip binds us to the earth and to one another.
The Smelter Next Door
How Stories Brings Science to Life
open.substack.com
Reposted by jahred
zjmontague.bsky.social
Major decision today regarding NIH funding, with some fairly scathing comments from Judge Young about the government’s anti-DEI bent.

How have we fallen so low? Have we no shame?”

Our full story:
Trump’s Cuts to N.I.H. Grants Are Illegal, Federal Judge Rules
www.nytimes.com
Reposted by jahred
britshmit.bsky.social
The sense of relief, vindication, & hope in the courtroom was undeniable—the emotion was so thick you could feel it in the air as justice & the value of our research were finally affirmed
protectdemocracy.org
🚨BREAKING: In a huge win for public health and democracy, a federal court ruled that the NIH’s ideological purge of life-saving research grants is unlawful.

Today, the rule of law prevailed — and science, once again, belongs to everyone.
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Was so happy to speak with the @ilinseagrant.bsky.social and the Sea Grant community last month!

🚰 Disparities in Contamination by PFAS in US Community Water Systems

Top line: EJ research & action will continue even as federal momentum shifts to oppose it!

youtu.be/m6GJWwxNNvE?...
Disparities in PFAS Contamination in U.S. Water Systems – Dr. Jahred Liddie (Sea Grant Webinar)
YouTube video by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant
youtu.be
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
There are a lot of other considerations + implications of these plans that are too lengthy to post here.

I'm not a lawyer so I don't know what all the next policy steps are, but if anyone in the #PFAS / #drinkingwater / #EJ world wants to collab on a public comment to EPA's plans, I'm def on board!
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
2nd pt is very important for monitoring moving fwd.

3rd: EPA's data indicates that other replacement PFAS (e.g., PFBA) are correlated w/ detections of PFAS that are more commonly regulated in some states. The strongest correlations incl PFAS that EPA is reneging on.

(full paper: bit.ly/43sILON)
A table depicts the correlation and overlap between detection of PFAS under study and PFBA among community water systems (n = 6,187) in the US EPA's Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR 5)
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
2nd: In prior analyses of statewide PFAS monitoring data, we found some clear evidence that *reg status impacts monitoring*. Note below how most water systems w/ incomplete data were missing data on PFAS w/out state regs.

(🔓full paper available open-access here: doi.org/10.1021/acs....)
Plot from Liddie et al., 2023. “All” includes CWS that reported concentrations of all 5 PFAS (that we focused on) at least once in drinking water samples. The patterns of missing data are tabulated (left) with the number of missing PFAS reported (right).
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
EPA stated plans to backslide on its finalized #PFAS drinking water regs. I'm highlighting some problems with this (w/ graphs!) from my own research 🚰

1st: some replacement PFAS (incl. some they are reneging on) are more freq detected than the "legacy" PFOA & PFOS. This is based on EPA's own data!
Detection frequencies (above the minimum reporting limits) of the top 10 most frequently detected PFAS in the US EPA's ongoing Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (as of 1/2025)
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
As the EPA attempts to backslide on important regulations for several replacement PFAS, let's not forget what the data coming out of the EPA currently show:

Several replacement PFAS are more frequently detected in drinking water than their legacy counterparts (PFOS and PFOA).
Detection frequencies (above the minimum reporting limits) of the top 10 most frequently detected PFAS in the US EPA's ongoing Fifth Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (as of 1/2025)
Reposted by jahred
neurograce.bsky.social
This is a really beautiful tool for conveying impact. Print them out as posters and flyer your town with them! silencedsciencestories.com/the-scientists
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
As I'm finishing up some of these reads now, I'm very excited to start this new book on PFAS by @mariahblake.bsky.social !
"They Poisoned the World" by Mariah Blake
jahredwithanh.bsky.social
Can't stress enough how valuable (and, honestly, interesting) it can be to learn about where your own water comes from!