After nearly a decade of searching for funding, the City of Kimberley has successfully obtained $400,000 to conduct a study on the potential impact of wildfires on its drinking water supply. The initiative stems from the 2018 Meachen Creek fire, which highlighted concerns regarding the susceptibility of local water sources to wildfires.
Mathieu Bourbonnais, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) Okanagan and co-director of the Centre for Wildfire Coexistence, emphasized that the availability of drinking water should not be taken for granted. He explained that the environment plays a crucial role in providing clean water, and wildfires are altering the dynamics of these systems.
Kimberley’s drinking water is sourced from the Mark Creek and Matthew Creek watersheds. A severe wildfire has the potential to impact both the quality and quantity of the city’s drinking water long after the fire has been extinguished. The project aims to identify these risks and develop strategies to mitigate them without inadvertently affecting the water supply.
The recent Matthew Creek wildfire, which prompted an evacuation alert for Kimberley, has underscored the vulnerabilities of the city’s watersheds. However, wildland fire ecologist Bob Gray noted that the fire’s impact on water movement through the watershed is expected to be minimal. The concern lies in the potential consequences of a more severe fire affecting Kimberley’s drinking-water watersheds.
Bourbonnais and his team at UBC Okanagan are collaborating with the city and Gray to simulate the behavior of fires in the Mark Creek watershed. The research will analyze forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to 2060. Additionally, the study will assess how a severe fire could influence water quality, streamflows, and the timing of water inflow into reservoirs.
The aim of the research is not only to identify areas where forest management practices like thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burning can reduce wildfire risks but also to ensure that these measures do not compromise water resources. The study is expected to span two years, with the Columbia Basin Trust contributing $300,000 and the city providing the remaining $100,000.
The findings from this project will inform future wildfire mitigation efforts and provide valuable planning tools that can be adapted by other communities. Bourbonnais emphasized the importance of proactive measures, stating that the risk of inaction outweighs the risks of being proactive.