Q&A on the future of freshwater with Rachel Havrelock

Rachel Havrelock, director of the Freshwater Lab and professor of English at the University of Illinois Chicago, sheds light on the state of freshwater in Chicago and globally. In a conversation with Science Sparks, she discusses the Freshwater Lab’s innovative efforts to address critical challenges shaping the future of freshwater. 

What is the global status of freshwater? 

These are statistics that are not easy to share, and I wish that I weren’t sharing them. But when we think about available freshwater on Earth — whether in lakes, or rivers or underground aquifers — the percentage of overall available water — it started out kind of small because anywhere between 1% to 2% of the water on Earth is available for human uses. A lot is frozen in glaciers or moving through the ocean.

So we already have a small amount of water that exists, and it’s kind of important to realize that all the water that is ever going to be on the Earth is already here. And due to a warming climate and human rates of extraction, every single available store of freshwater is currently dwindling. 

What’s the current state of freshwater in Chicago? 

The current state of water in Chicago is not as dire as other places on the globe, and for that, we are eternally lucky — and also appreciative of the glaciers that hollowed out these bodies that became the North American Great Lakes. The North American Great Lakes hold over 20% of the available freshwater on the Earth. So it is a tremendous gift. 

But the lakes on the one hand — despite the fact that when you look out, you cannot see their end, despite the fact of their size and the relatively high quality of the water — they are imperiled. 

Now, one thing I want to add to the scenario of freshwater in the Chicago area is that in the early days of the city, people did not draw from the lake for drinking water. They drew from underground wells, and there used to be fairly copious amounts of groundwater all throughout Chicago and northeastern Illinois. 

That groundwater is at the very end of its existence. We have the Cambrian-Ordovician aquifer — it’s the official name — and it is nearly tapped. 

To add to that, there’s a really unique geologic feature of that aquifer, so even if we pumped water in, it wouldn’t be sustainable. So we’re very lucky, on the one hand, to have this amazing lake — this freshwater, fresh surface water — available. But that coexists with a pretty dire groundwater emergency. 

What is the UIC Freshwater Lab, and how is it addressing this issue? 

At the UIC Freshwater Lab, we work in three areas. The first goes right to your question. We do a lot of public-facing work — digital storytelling, events, web assets — everything we can that is free and accessible and user-friendly for the public to get a handle on their water. 

And I think the most important thing any single individual can do is to simply ask themselves: What is the source of water for their homes? And what are some of the threats to that body of water? 

The most important place where that question can lead is to really feeling the relationship with the water that sustains us. Because when you feel that relationship, you realize how dependent we are on our water, and how much the water also needs us to be advocates. 

So at the Freshwater Lab, we’re always looking for clever, artistic and really innovative forms of communication to get the information out and get people involved, no matter who they are. 

And we really sustain ourselves with an optimistic vision of the Great Lakes. So our research and our policy work are driven by this vision: that the Great Lakes region will be the Water Belt. That we can pioneer new forms of manufacturing, of agriculture and of using and sharing water so that not only can long-standing communities be sustained, but we can also open our arms and receive people from parts of the world that are no longer habitable.