diff --git a/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/etl/sources/maryland_ejscreen/etl.py b/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/etl/sources/maryland_ejscreen/etl.py
index 5538ed97..eed10ad1 100644
--- a/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/etl/sources/maryland_ejscreen/etl.py
+++ b/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/etl/sources/maryland_ejscreen/etl.py
@@ -92,14 +92,13 @@ class MarylandEJScreenETL(ExtractTransformLoad):
             inplace=True,
         )
 
+        # Interpretation: An EJ score (reported as a percentile)
+        # has a percentile rank of N for some N between 0 - 100"
         self.df[field_names.MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_PERCENTILE_FIELD] = self.df[
             field_names.MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_SCORE_FIELD
-        ].rank(
-            pct=True,
-            ascending=True
-        )
+        ].rank(pct=True, ascending=True)
 
-        # An arbitrarily chosen percentile is used in the comparison tool output
+        # An arbitrarily chosen threshold is used in the comparison tool output
         self.df[field_names.MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_BURDENED_THRESHOLD_FIELD] = (
             self.df[field_names.MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_PERCENTILE_FIELD] > 0.75
         )
diff --git a/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/score/field_names.py b/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/score/field_names.py
index 50aa7be8..6d7c4cd4 100644
--- a/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/score/field_names.py
+++ b/data/data-pipeline/data_pipeline/score/field_names.py
@@ -239,8 +239,11 @@ MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_PERCENTILE_FIELD: str = (
 
 MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_SCORE_FIELD: str = "Maryland Environmental Justice Score"
 
+# this references ranked percentiles
+# please see here for interpretation: https://github.com/usds/justice40-tool/issues/239#issuecomment-1003567593
+# and here: https://github.com/usds/justice40-tool/issues/239#issuecomment-1003448074
 MARYLAND_EJSCREEN_BURDENED_THRESHOLD_FIELD: str = (
-    "Tract is greater than 75th percentile for Maryland EJ Score"
+    "Tract has an EJ Score greater than 75"
 )
 
 # Child Opportunity Index data