Code Projects
Every research post has its own small code project. The scripts load public data, do the analysis, and save the exact graphs, figures, and tables used in the post, so anyone can check or reproduce the numbers.
Every project lives in its own folder, projects/<post-name>/, with the same parts:
README.md: what it does, where the data comes from, and how to run itrequirements.txt: the Python packages it needsanalysis.py: the script (some projects have numbered steps, like 01_download.py)data/: the input data, or a script that downloads itoutput/: the figures and tables the script creates, exactly what the post shows
Supports: When It Rains, It Pours Sewage: Combined Sewer Overflows in New Jersey
When it rains, old combined sewers overflow into New Jersey rivers. I looked at how often outfalls discharge and who lives nearby.
Supports: Mapped in 1937, Hotter in 2026: Redlining, Trees, and Heat in New Jersey
Neighborhoods redlined in the 1930s are hotter today, and tree cover explains most of the gap. Satellite heat and redlining in New Jersey.
Does the Ironbound really host more environmental-justice-regulated facilities than anywhere in New Jersey? I tested the claim in the PVSC plant case.
Supports: Getting the Lead Out: Pipes, Paint, and Children's Blood in New Jersey
Lead pipes, old paint, and children's blood lead in New Jersey: where elevated levels are concentrated and what Newark and Trenton show about progress.
Supports: Forever Chemicals, Everyone's Problem? PFAS in New Jersey's Drinking Water
PFAS in New Jersey drinking water are widely shared across the state. A look at federal testing results, who is affected, and who pays for treatment.
Supports: Toxic Tides: When Rising Seas Meet New Jersey's Contaminated Sites
What happens when rising seas reach New Jersey's contaminated sites? I looked at which sites could flood and which communities live closest to them.
Supports: The Warehouse State: Diesel, Distribution, and a Gap in New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law
Diesel, distribution, and a gap in New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law: who lives near large warehouses, and what a proposed warehouse bill would cover.
Supports: Denial by Default? New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law Goes to the State Supreme Court
How New Jersey's Environmental Justice Law works, what the courts have decided, and what the data show as the state Supreme Court reviews the rules.
Supports: Capstone: Building a Cumulative-Burden Index from the Data Up
Build a data-driven cumulative-burden index, compare it with NJDEP's count-based approach, and identify community types.
Supports: Can Open Data Map New Jersey's Warehouses? A Lesson in Data Gaps and Spatial Bias
Build an as-of-date warehouse dataset from OpenStreetMap, check its completeness, and test whether warehouse exposure is associated with community characteristics after accounting for spatial dependence.
Supports: Piling Up: How Many Serious Hazards Does Each Neighborhood Face at Once?
Count how many serious hazards each neighborhood faces and test whether overburdened communities face more, within the same county.
Supports: The Supreme Court Takes the Case: Stress-Testing New Jersey's Stressor Test
Test how sensitive NJDEP's "adverse cumulative stressors" determinations are to individual stressors and to measurement error.
Supports: How Unequal Is It? Measuring New Jersey's Pollution Gap Like Economists Measure Income Inequality
Measure how concentrated each environmental burden is among residents of more diverse and lower-income neighborhoods.
Supports: Back to School Next to the Highway
Measure how many New Jersey students attend school near limited-access highways and whether this differs by school poverty.
Supports: The Scrap Yard Next Door: Mapping New Jersey's Metal Recyclers
Map where scrap metal facilities cluster, and compare how close OBC and other residents live to them.
Supports: Peaker Plants on Hot Days: When the Heat Rises, So Does Power-Plant Pollution
Measure how New Jersey power-plant NOx responds to hot days, and the role of peakers.
Supports: Did the Heat Grants Reach the Hottest Places?
Compare where heat-island grant dollars went with where heat vulnerability is concentrated.
Supports: The July Heat Wave: Mapping New Jersey's Heat Hot Spots
Test whether heat clusters spatially and identify statistically significant hot spots.
Supports: Measuring Heat Vulnerability: Who Is Most at Risk When the Next Heat Wave Hits?
Build and test a block-group heat vulnerability index for New Jersey.
Supports: One Bad Day: Who Lives Near New Jersey's High-Risk Chemical Facilities?
Test whether overburdened communities are more likely to be among New Jersey's most chemical-hazard-dense neighborhoods, and how confident we can be.
Supports: A Decade of Ozone: New Jersey's Progress Has Stalled
Measure ozone trends at New Jersey monitors from 2015 to 2025, and test whether trends differ in OBCs.
Supports: Living Next to Industry: Who Lives Within a Mile of a Toxic-Release Facility?
Test whether overburdened communities and communities of color are more likely to live within a mile of a TRI facility, comparing neighborhoods within the same county.
Supports: Is the Water Safe? Health-Based Drinking Water Violations in New Jersey
Test whether health-based violations are more frequent in systems serving overburdened communities, using an appropriate model for count data.
Supports: Earth Day 2026: The Air Toxics Picture in New Jersey
Compare modeled air toxics cancer risk between OBC and non-OBC residents, with uncertainty, and identify which sources drive the gap.
Supports: A New Map of Burden: What Changed When New Jersey Updated Its Overburdened Communities
Measure what changed between two versions of NJDEP's environmental justice dataset, and why.
Supports: Five Years Left: Can New Jersey Replace Its Lead Pipes by 2031?
Describe New Jersey's service line inventory and test whether lead-line share relates to OBC share, with honest uncertainty.
Supports: Sewage in the Rain: After Accounting for Weather, Are New Jersey's Sewer Overflows Declining?
Estimate rain-adjusted changes in combined sewer overflows from 2023 to 2025.
Supports: Where Do You Draw the Line? How Three Numbers Decide Who Is 'Overburdened'
Recreate the OBC list from its definition and test how it changes with different thresholds.
Supports: The Court Upholds the Rules: What the Appellate Division Decided, and Can We Check NJDEP's Math?
Recompute NJDEP's adverse stressor flags, Combined Stressor Totals, and cumulative-stressor determinations, and measure agreement.
Supports: The Warehouse Boom: Are Trucks and Diesel Concentrated in Overburdened Communities?
Test whether truck and diesel exposure is higher in OBCs after accounting for county and urbanization.
Supports: The Ironbound's Fourth Power Plant: A Court Hits Pause
Summarize cumulative burden in rings around PVSC.
Extract municipal blood lead tables from two NJDOH PDFs and explain differences across towns.
Supports: Five Years After the EJ Law: Contaminated Sites Next Door
Test whether contaminated-site density is higher in overburdened communities even after comparing neighborhoods within the same county and with similar development.
Supports: Chemical Fingerprints: What the DuPont Settlement Means, and What South Jersey's Water Shows
Compare PFAS detection rates between South Jersey and the rest of the state, compound by compound, and map PFNA.
Supports: Planting Shade: Where New Jersey's New Heat Program Could Do the Most Good
Compare shade and pavement between OBCs and other block groups, then separate their effects on municipal heat.
Supports: Hottest in the City: What Satellites Show About Heat in New Jersey's Towns
Estimate each New Jersey municipality's summer surface temperature from Landsat.
Supports: The Plants Behind the Bill: Who Lives Next to New Jersey's Power Plants?
Measure how close New Jersey's fuel-burning power plants are to overburdened communities and communities of color.
Supports: The Map EPA Took Down: What EJScreen's Last Data Showed About New Jersey
Measure how strongly each EJScreen indicator rises with the share of people of color in New Jersey neighborhoods.
Supports: Superfund State: Who Lives Near New Jersey's 113 Most Hazardous Sites?
Count NPL sites as of April 16, 2025, and estimate how many people live within a mile of one.
Supports: The Soot Standard Under Review: Where New Jersey Stands on Fine Particle Pollution
Approximate each New Jersey monitor's PM2.5 design value for 2022–2024.
Supports: Ozone Season 2024: How Often Did New Jersey's Air Fail the Federal Standard?
Count how many days each New Jersey monitor exceeded the ozone standard in 2024.
Supports: What Do New Jersey's Factories Report Releasing? A First Look at the Toxics Release Inventory
Summarize New Jersey's 2023 TRI reports by facility, industry, chemical, and county.
Supports: Burning Trash Next Door: Who Lives Near New Jersey's Incinerators?
Find New Jersey's trash incinerators and describe who lives nearby.
Supports: Licensed to Pollute: Who Lives Among New Jersey's Permitted Air Pollution Sources?
Compare how densely permitted air pollution sources are packed around overburdened and other neighborhoods.
Supports: Room to Breathe: Who Has Parks and Open Space Nearby?
Compare access to parks and open space in overburdened and other neighborhoods.
Supports: Where the Trash Goes: Who Lives Near New Jersey's Waste and Recycling Facilities?
Compare how often overburdened and other neighborhoods have waste and recycling facilities.
Supports: Old Homes, Old Paint: Who Lives Where Lead Paint Is Most Likely?
Compare how much old housing (built before 1950) overburdened communities and other neighborhoods have.
Supports: Environmental Injustice Is Real in New Jersey: Introducing This Project
Use NJDEP's official data to count overburdened communities and compare their pollution burdens with other neighborhoods.