After an arduous eight-year quest for funding, the City of Kimberley has successfully secured $400,000 to conduct a study on the potential impact of wildfires on its drinking water supply. The initiative was spurred by the 2018 Meachen Creek fire, which highlighted concerns regarding the susceptibility of local water sources.
Mathieu Bourbonnais, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan and co-director of the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence, emphasized the importance of recognizing the reliance on the environment for drinking water. He pointed out that wildfires are altering the behavior of natural systems that provide this essential resource.
Kimberley draws its drinking water from the Mark Creek and Matthew Creek watersheds. The project aims to assess the risks posed by severe wildfires to both the quality and availability of the city’s drinking water in the long term, while also identifying strategies to mitigate these risks without compromising the water supply.
The recent Matthew Creek wildfire, which prompted a citywide evacuation alert, brought renewed attention to the vulnerabilities of Kimberley’s watersheds. Wildland fire ecologist Bob Gray noted that while the immediate impact on water movement through the watershed is limited, the potential consequences of a more severe wildfire in one of Kimberley’s watersheds are concerning.
Bourbonnais’s research team at UBC Okanagan, in collaboration with the city and Gray, is conducting modeling studies to predict the behavior of fires in the Mark Creek watershed. The study will analyze forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to 2060, while also examining the potential effects of severe fires on water quality and streamflows.
The research will not only inform strategies for reducing wildfire risk through forest thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burning but also address the challenges associated with these mitigation measures. The ultimate goal is to find a balance that minimizes wildfire risk without causing adverse effects on hydrology.
The project, funded by the Columbia Basin Trust and the city, is anticipated to span two years. Its outcomes will provide valuable insights for future wildfire mitigation efforts and serve as a blueprint for other communities facing similar challenges. According to Bourbonnais, taking proactive measures is crucial, as the consequences of inaction far outweigh the risks of proactive planning.