The City of Kimberley has recently secured $400,000 after an almost eight-year pursuit of funding to investigate the potential impact of wildfires on its drinking water supply. The initiative was triggered by the 2018 Meachen Creek fire, which raised concerns about the susceptibility of local water sources.
According to Mathieu Bourbonnais, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan and co-director of the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence, people often take their access to drinking water for granted. He emphasized that while individuals typically expect clean water by turning on a tap, such a convenience relies on environmental systems, which are being altered by wildfires.
Kimberley’s drinking water is sourced from the Mark Creek and Matthew Creek watersheds. The potential impact of a severe wildfire on both the quality and availability of the city’s drinking water long after the fire incidents is a significant concern. The project’s primary goal is to identify these risks and develop strategies to mitigate them without causing additional issues for the water supply.
The recent Matthew Creek wildfire, which prompted an evacuation alert for the entire city during the summer, has drawn attention to the risks facing Kimberley’s watersheds. Wildland fire ecologist Bob Gray mentioned that the fire’s effects on water movement through the watershed are expected to be minimal due to the specific areas that were severely burned.
Looking ahead, Bourbonnais’s lab at UBC Okanagan is collaborating with the city and Gray to simulate potential fire behavior in the Mark Creek watershed. The research will evaluate forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to 2060, focusing on how a severe fire could impact water quality, streamflows, and reservoir water inflow timings.
The study will also aid in pinpointing areas where forest thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burning could reduce wildfire risks. However, Bourbonnais highlighted the necessity of balancing these mitigation measures with their potential impact on hydrology. The research outcomes are expected to guide future wildfire mitigation efforts and provide valuable planning resources that could be adapted by other communities.
The project, supported by a $300,000 contribution from the Columbia Basin Trust and $100,000 from the city, is anticipated to span approximately two years. Bourbonnais emphasized the importance of proactive measures, stating that the risk of inaction outweighs the risk of being proactive in addressing potential threats posed by wildfires on drinking water supplies.