Wildfire and the Future of Water Supply

Bladon, Kevin D.; Emelko, Monica B.; Silins, U.; Stone, M.

doi:10.1021/es500130g

Cited by 244 publications

(227 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Turbidity exceeded the 10 NTU threshold about 18%, 10%, and 2% of the time, respectively ; and, • DOC and turbidity are key aspects of water quality that drive drinking water treatment operations and the infrastructure needed to treat source water to produce safe drinking water. Thus, depending on the extent and severity of wildfires and the type of treatment infrastructure in place, wildfires have the potential to generate significant implications for drinking water treatment operations (Bladon et al 2014).…”

Section: Water Treatment Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Southern Rockies Watershed Project

Silins

Anderson

Bladon

et al. 2016

The Forestry Chronicle

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The Southern Rockies Watershed Project was initiated in 2003 to describe the impacts of severe natural disturbance by wildfire on a broad range of headwaters, larger river basin scale, and downstream water resources (Phase I). This watershed research is unique in that trans-disciplinary linkages between hydrology, biogeochemistry, aquatic ecology, downstream river basin processes, implications for human water use, and economic implications are providing broad insights into wildfire effects on water. A second phase of the research (Phase II) focuses on evaluating the effects of several alternative forest harvesting practices on these same water resource "values". Collectively, this research is providing comprehensive information on watershed function after forest disturbance in Rocky Mountain watersheds. RÉSUMÉLe Projet du bassin hydrographique du Sud des Rocheuses a été lancé en 2003 pour décrire les effets des grandes perturbations naturelles occasionnées par les feux de forêt sur une gamme variée d' eaux d'amont, de bassins versants à grande échelle et de ressources hydriques en aval (Phase 1). Cette étude de bassin versant est unique du fait de ses liens interdisciplinaires entre l'hydrologie, la bio-géochimie, l' écologie aquatique, les processus d' écoulement en aval, les implications relatives à l'usage par l'homme de l' eau et leurs conséquences économiques qui permettent d'avoir une perspective globale sur les effets des feux de forêt sur l' eau. Une deuxième phase du projet (Phase II) porte sur l' évaluation des effets de diverses techniques d' exploitation alternatives sur les « valeurs » de cette même ressource-eau. Dans son ensemble, cette étude apporte une vaste gamme de renseignements sur la fonction des bassins versants après une perturbation forestière dans les bassins versants des Rocheuses.

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Section: Water Treatment Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Southern Rockies Watershed Project

Silins

Anderson

Bladon

et al. 2016

The Forestry Chronicle

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“…The responses of catchments burned by fires are highly variable in space and time. This variability means it is challenging to compare fire effects in different geographical areas [20,37], though there are efforts to develop post-fire hydrogeomorphic response frameworks to facilitate such comparisons [38][39][40]. Observed post-fire effects range from no observed change in stream hydrology or chemistry to higher peak flows, base flow, suspended sediment (also reported as turbidity) and bedload [41,42], and increases in several chemical constituents such as nutrients, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) [43][44][45][46][47].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

At the nexus of fire, water and society

Martin¹

2016

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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The societal risks of water scarcity and water-quality impairment have received considerable attention, evidenced by recent analyses of these topics by the 2030 Water Resources Group, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum. What are the effects of fire on the predicted water scarcity and declines in water quality? Drinking water supplies for humans, the emphasis of this exploration, are derived from several land cover types, including forests, grasslands and peatlands, which are vulnerable to fire. In the last two decades, fires have affected the water supply catchments of Denver (CO) and other southwestern US cities, and four major Australian cities including Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne. In the same time period, several, though not all, national, regional and global water assessments have included fire in evaluations of the risks that affect water supplies. The objective of this discussion is to explore the nexus of fire, water and society with the hope that a more explicit understanding of fire effects on water supplies will encourage the incorporation of fire into future assessments of water supplies, into the pyrogeography conceptual framework and into planning efforts directed at water resiliency. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The interaction of fire and mankind’.

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“…6 There is a paucity of information concerning the impact of wildfire on drinking water quality, especially regarding the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) during water treatment. 2,7 DBPs are formed in reactions between oxidants (e.g., chlorine, chloramine, ozone) and organic (e.g., DOM) and inorganic (e.g., bromide) precursors in water.…”

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wildfire Altering Terrestrial Precursors of Disinfection Byproducts in Forest Detritus

Wang

Dahlgren

Erşan

et al. 2015

Environ. Sci. Technol.

102

105

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Wildfire occurrence and intensity are increasing worldwide causing severe disturbances to forest watersheds used for potable water supply. The effects of wildfire on drinking water quality are not well understood, especially in terms of terrestrial dissolved organic matter (DOM) and DOM-associated formation of disinfection byproducts (DBP). As the forest floor layer is a major source of terrestrial DOM, we investigated characteristics and DBP formation of water extractable organic matter (WEOM) from the 0−5 cm depth of nonburned detritus (control) and burned detritus with black ash (moderate severity) and white ash (high severity) associated with the 2013 Rim Fire in California. Spectroscopic results suggested that the aromaticity of WEOM followed white ash > control > black ash and fluorescence region II (excitation 220−250 nm; emission 330−380 nm) of the emission-excitation-matrix was identified as a potential burn severity indicator. Compared to the control, WEOM from white and black ashes had lower reactivity in forming trihalomethanes (55%-of-control) and haloacetic acids (67%-of-control), but higher reactivity in forming the more carcinogenic haloacetonitrile after chlorination (244%-of-control) and N-nitrosodimethylamine after chloramination (229%-of-control). There was no change in reactivity for chloral hydrate formation, while WEOM from black ash showed a higher reactivity for haloketone formation (150%-of-control). Because wildfire consumed a large portion of organic matter from the detritus layer, there was lower water extractable organic carbon (27%-of-control) and organic nitrogen (19%-of-control) yields in ashes. Consequently, the wildfire caused an overall reduction in water extractable terrestrial DBP precursor yield from detritus materials.

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Wildfire and the Future of Water Supply

Cited by 244 publications

References 60 publications

Southern Rockies Watershed Project

Southern Rockies Watershed Project

At the nexus of fire, water and society

Wildfire Altering Terrestrial Precursors of Disinfection Byproducts in Forest Detritus

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