Robert M. Summers ’72 (A&S), PhD ’81, had long worked to protect the environment, but on a recent canoeing trip with his teenage sons and friends down the Susquehanna River, he experienced firsthand the symptoms of polluted waters. Floating down the waterway that begins outside of Cooperstown, New York, and terminates in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay, the group encountered rain-swollen sections of the river contaminated with sewage overflows and land runoff. “The trip was beautiful and not so beautiful,” says the Baltimore native, who majored in natural sciences at Hopkins and went on to earn a PhD from the Whiting School’s Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering. The tainted water wasn’t just hard on the eyes … it also gave Summers a bacterial infection in his ankle that required a trip to the hospital.
Fortunately for the rest of us, Summers is in a position to draw attention to the threat facing such natural resources and to craft plans to protect them. Last January he was named deputy secretary of the Department of the Environment for the state of Maryland. After 23 years working for state environmental agencies, most recently as the director of the Water Management Administration, he accepts his appointment at a critical time. “We’re under a lot of pressure,” he acknowledges. “Maryland is one of the most rapidly growing states in the country. There’s a good [environmental] infrastructure here, but much of it has not been well maintained. We will have to redouble our efforts to improve and restore that infrastructure.”
A key player in the drafting of the momentous Chesapeake Bay Restoration Act that passed in 2004, Summers now casts an even wider net in his efforts to improve the environment. While contributing to policy that protects the watershed, manages hazardous and solid waste, cleans the air, and regulates building and development to minimize destruction, he also brings a scientist’s scrutiny to a position that’s been held in the past by non-scientists.
Because he understands the science behind the issues and knows how to relay that information to the public at large, he frequently finds himself called upon in state legislative hearings to answer questions about hydrology or sediment erosion.
From his home in Baltimore County, Summers contributes to the planet’s health through more personal gestures—driving a hybrid car, using fluorescent bulbs. He’s looking forward to tackling the complex issues facing the state’s next legislative session, like Maryland’s storm water problem: how to manage the toxins that dribble from driveways, yards, and streets directly into the water supply. “Restoring water quality has always been a driving issue for me,” he says, “but it’s all connected, what you put in the air, how you treat sewage. All pollution sources wind up in the water.”