AWWA Water Science Author Spotlight: Liam Amery

Abstract

Having recently published an article in AWWA Water Science, Liam Amery answered questions from the publication's editor-in-chief, Kenneth L. Mercer, about the research.

Water Lead Levels in Massachusetts Schools and Early Education and Childcare Facilities

Liam Amery, John Tobiason, and Emily Kumpel

I’m currently working as an environmental engineer for CDM Smith in Boston, focusing mainly on drinking water and conveyance projects. Especially now, with upcoming deadlines and regulations for Lead and Copper Rule Revisions and Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, much of my work has to do with helping communities survey their service line materials, which means I spend a lot of time looking at historical records or going into the field and observing excavations.

Liam Amery does a walkthrough at a school to design a sampling plan to test its drinking water for lead.

Liam presents research on lead in schools at the 2023 Water and Health Conference at the University of North Carolina.

Lead in drinking water has been an issue for a long time; I remember the Flint water crisis being a big deal back when I was in high school and was not yet remotely interested in the world of water science and environmental engineering. Luckily, in the aftermath of Flint, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and UMASS Amherst have been collaborating on a joint program to help schools and childcare centers test their drinking water for lead (and previously copper). Because they make these data available, results from more than 1,000 schools and childcare centers statewide are accessible online. This program and the data that were gathered from it motivated this work and inspired us to think about how we can use these data to understand factors influencing lead in drinking water in these facilities.

None in particular, but many studies nationwide are focusing on lead in schools and childcare facilities, using data from sampling programs to achieve their study goals. A few other studies have used data from the same portal we used, and I reviewed them closely during the initial stages and planning of our study: Lobo et al. 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150046), Ram 2019 (https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cee_ewre/99), and Rome et al. 2022 (https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.1c00845).

Most of our data analysis and modeling are methods that have been used previously. One of the newer methods in our study was to create risk indexes for a school based on percentages of taps exceeding different water lead level (WLL) thresholds. One of the more difficult issues with studying lead in drinking water is how much variability can exist within different taps at the same school as well as the different WLL thresholds that are used and are either health based or policy based.

Liam surveys a beaded stream in Alaska as part of a research experience during his undergraduate studies.

Defining the risk for a school according to its WLLs was a challenge because of the many different WLL thresholds that are used and the variability among taps in a school. Additionally, there are issues that make it more difficult to model when the data are very skewed and there are so many nondetects. Much of our work on the study involves the best way to model this: Should we model at individual fixtures versus at a school level? How do we best define the WLLs at a school or childcare facility? This is how we ultimately arrived at the risk indexes.

One idea to explore further was to look more closely at the remediation side. We discussed it a bit in our article, but schools and childcare centers can report remedial actions that they take to address elevated WLLs, and there are programs in the state that can grant money to help with replacing fixtures used for drinking water. Taking a closer look at the specific fixtures that schools are replacing and the costs/life cycle maintenance and the effectiveness of different types of replacement fixtures at facilities across the state is something that could guide best practices for future remediation.

I love to be active. I enjoy spending my time in the mountains—hiking, camping, or running. I also dabble in many sports—rock climbing, swimming, biking, and soccer, to name a few. On the weekends you can find me consuming copious amounts of coffee, reading a book, and watching my favorite soccer team (Manchester United).

The most exciting thing to me is the opportunity to work on something so essential every day. Everyone uses and drinks water. In places where there isn’t nearly as much access to safe drinking water, we see how much it affects lives. It's easy for me to take it for granted when I turn on the tap to fill up a glass of water, but since I’ve started working within the world of water, I’ve been able to see the complex systems behind getting clean drinking water to my tap. I’ve also seen how much it can affect communities that don’t have those systems in place.

To learn more about Liam's research, visit the article, available online at https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1358.