After pursuing funding for nearly eight years, the City of Kimberley has successfully secured $400,000 to conduct a study on the potential impact of wildfires on its drinking water supply. This initiative stems from the 2018 Meachen Creek fire, 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 the importance of not taking drinking water for granted. He noted that while we often assume access to clean water is a given, wildfires are altering the behavior of environmental systems that provide this essential resource.

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 availability of the city’s drinking water long after the fire has been extinguished. The primary goal of the project 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, has brought renewed attention to the vulnerabilities of the city’s watersheds. Wildland fire ecologist Bob Gray reassured that the fire’s impact on water movement through the watershed is expected to be minimal, as the most severely affected areas were higher up on the slopes.

Looking ahead, Bourbonnais’s lab at UBC Okanagan, in collaboration with the city and Gray, is conducting research to model potential fire behavior in the Mark Creek watershed. This study will assess forest conditions, weather patterns, and climate change projections up to the year 2060. Additionally, researchers will analyze how a severe wildfire could influence water quality, streamflows, and reservoir replenishment timing.

The research aims to pinpoint areas where forest thinning, harvesting, and prescribed burning could decrease wildfire risks. However, Bourbonnais stressed the importance of balancing these mitigation efforts with considerations for hydrological impacts. The project, funded by the Columbia Basin Trust and the city, is anticipated to span two years and will provide valuable insights for future wildfire management strategies, serving as a model for other communities facing similar challenges.

Bourbonnais underscored the necessity of proactive measures, stating that the potential consequences of inaction outweigh the risks associated with taking preemptive action.