Urban Water Pollution

The city of Providence, Rhode Island, has an industrial history that spans centuries. This industrial legacy has left the rivers running through the city—including the Blackstone, Moshassuck, West, and Woonasquatucket Rivers—heavily polluted. Additionally, the use of hazardous building materials, such as lead water pipes and paint, continues to pose health risks to Providence residents. I am leading a team of researchers at Brown University on projects focused on quantifying pollution in urban watersheds and community areas, as well as projecting how these pollution sources will evolve in response to climate change.

Read about our recently funded seed grant to study lead pollution: Lead Exposure in Providence: A Comprehensive Survey and Initiation of a Community Engagement Project for Safer Drinking Water

Building Community Partnerships

Our team of researchers is currently building partnerships with community organizations in Rhode Island to collaborate on effective strategies for community-based sampling of environmental pollution sources and initiatives to communicate the results of this research to Providence residents. If you are interested in collaborating on this work, please feel free to email me!