Up close with Deborah Swackhamer

In astrological terms, Deborah Swackhamer falls under five or six water signs, but the reasons she’s become one of the nation’s foremost experts on lakes, rivers, and oceans are purely scientific. Currently, she co-directs the U’s Water Resources Center, holds the Charles M. Denny, Jr. Chair in Science, Technology, and Public Policy at the U’s Humphrey Institute, and serves as president-elect of the National Institutes of Water Resources. In terms of influencing water policy, the stars are in her favor.

What are some of today’s biggest water problems?

One big issue is the infrastructure for our drinking water and wastewater treatment plants. It’s aging and degrading as we speak. And the chemical pollution of our water continues to be a big issue. Forty percent of our lakes are still polluted. Part of that is because we’re treating chemicals from the past, but we’re not dealing with the chemicals of the future.

How is the U addressing these?

We have several researchers working on wastewater treatment plants and estrogen hormone mimics. We have people working on the pharmaceuticals from the veterinary industry. We have people who are developing new techniques for assaying the impacts of chemicals on both wildlife and humans. So we have a real critical mass of top-level research here in Minnesota.

How can private funding help?

If you’re going to address policy problems, you can’t write a grant and wait five years. Private support allows us to deal with issues on the ground, issues that need to be addressed today.

What’s the one piece of water-related advice you give most often?

That people need to be thinking in a much more comprehensive, holistic way. For example, the things you do to groundwater impact fish in a stream two miles away. Everything you do has consequences for something else. And it’s not just about water. It’s about air and climate change and people.

Care to share any perilous sea (or lake) stories?

One is a trip I took as a student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The research vessel we were on took about 10 hours to cross Lake Michigan from east to west in 10-foot waves. Everything in all the labs fell on the floor. It was at night, and we were basically tied into our bunks because it was so dangerous. I was a very sick student, I’ll tell you that.

With your career focus on water, do you spend your free time on dry land?

No, actually my husband and I are active scuba divers. Our most recent trip was to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. We saw hammerhead sharks, and they’re supposed to be afraid of humans. But oh no, they came right up to us, just 15 feet away. These are 20-foot animals, major predator sharks. That made my heart beat a lot faster.

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