After almost eight years of searching for funding, Kimberley City has successfully secured $400,000 to conduct a study on the potential impact of wildfires on its drinking water supply. This initiative stems from concerns raised during the 2018 Meachen Creek fire, highlighting the vulnerability of local water sources to such disasters.
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 not taking drinking water for granted. He pointed out that wildfire activities are altering environmental systems crucial for water provision, emphasizing the need to understand and mitigate these risks.
Kimberley’s drinking water is primarily sourced from the Mark Creek and Matthew Creek watersheds. A severe wildfire could have lasting effects on the quality and availability of the city’s drinking water, even after the fire is extinguished. The project’s goal is to identify these risks and develop strategies to mitigate them without compromising the water supply.
The recent Matthew Creek wildfire, which triggered an evacuation alert for Kimberley, brought renewed attention to the risks faced by the city’s watersheds. Wildland fire ecologist Bob Gray noted that the fire’s impact on water movement in the watershed is expected to be minimal, given the specific areas affected by severe burning.
Looking ahead, Bourbonnais’s lab at UBC Okanagan, in collaboration with the city and Gray, is conducting modeling studies on potential fire behavior in the Mark Creek watershed. This research will assess forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to 2060 to understand how severe fires could affect water quality, streamflows, and reservoir water levels.
The study also aims to identify areas where forest management practices like thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burns could reduce wildfire risks. However, Bourbonnais stressed the importance of balancing wildfire mitigation efforts with hydrological concerns to prevent adverse effects on water resources.
The project, funded by the Columbia Basin Trust and the city of Kimberley, is anticipated to span two years. Its outcomes will inform future wildfire mitigation strategies and provide valuable planning tools for other communities facing similar challenges. Bourbonnais reiterated the importance of proactive measures, stating that the risks of inaction outweigh those of taking proactive steps.