The City of Kimberley has successfully secured $400,000 after almost eight years of pursuing funding to investigate the potential impact of wildfires on its drinking water supply. The initiative originated from concerns raised by the 2018 Meachen Creek fire 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 acknowledging the reliance on the environment for drinking water, especially in the face of changing wildfire dynamics.
Kimberley draws its drinking water from the Mark Creek and Matthew Creek watersheds. The research project’s primary objective is to identify wildfire-related risks and devise strategies to mitigate these risks without compromising the water supply.
The recent Matthew Creek wildfire, which prompted an evacuation alert for Kimberley, highlighted the vulnerability of the city’s watersheds. While the fire’s immediate impact on water movement in the watershed is expected to be minimal, the concern remains for potential severe wildfires affecting water quality and flow dynamics in the future.
Collaborating with Bob Gray, a wildland fire ecologist, Bourbonnais’s team is conducting modeling studies on fire behavior in the Mark Creek watershed. The research will assess forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to 2060 to understand the potential implications of severe fires on water quality and streamflows.
The study also aims to pinpoint areas where forest management practices like thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burning can mitigate wildfire risks. However, Bourbonnais emphasized the need to balance these mitigation efforts with their impact on hydrology to prevent unintended consequences like erosion or peak water flows.
The project, funded by the Columbia Basin Trust and the city, is anticipated to span two years. Its outcomes will inform future wildfire mitigation strategies and offer valuable planning resources for other communities facing similar challenges. Bourbonnais stressed the importance of proactive measures, stating that the risks of inaction outweigh the risks of taking preemptive steps.