After nearly eight years of pursuing 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 originated from the 2018 Meachen Creek fire incident, which highlighted concerns about 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 how people often take their access to drinking water for granted. He highlighted the essential connection between the environment and water supply, noting that wildfires are altering the behavior of these systems.
Kimberley relies on the Mark Creek and Matthew Creek watersheds for its drinking water, making it vulnerable to quality and availability issues in the aftermath of severe wildfires. The project’s primary goal is to identify these risks and develop strategies to mitigate them without compromising the water supply.
The recent Matthew Creek wildfire in Kimberley triggered an evacuation alert for the entire city, drawing attention to the risks faced by the local watersheds. However, wildland fire ecologist Bob Gray reassured that the fire’s impact on water movement through the watershed is expected to be minimal, as the severely burned areas were limited and situated higher up the slopes.
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 analyze forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to 2060, while also exploring the effects of severe fires on water quality, streamflows, and reservoir water timing.
The study will also pinpoint areas where forest thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burning can lower wildfire risks. However, Bourbonnais emphasized the importance of striking a balance between wildfire mitigation measures and their hydrological impacts, underscoring the need for careful planning to prevent erosion and sedimentation issues.
The project, funded by the Columbia Basin Trust and the city, is anticipated to span approximately two years. Its outcomes will not only inform future wildfire mitigation efforts in Kimberley but also offer valuable planning tools for other communities. Bourbonnais stressed the significance of proactive measures, stating that the risk of inaction outweighs the risks associated with taking preemptive steps.