Water Contamination Risk
- kc dyer
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
New study confirms long-held concerns after wildfires
A recent study co-authored by University of British Columbia professor Qingshi Tu concluded that the chemicals used to fight wildfires, along with the ash and other chemicals that leach out after the fire, can continue to contaminate groundwater for months or years after the fire has been extinguished.
This finding confirms long-held concerns expressed by Lions Bay Infrastructure Committee (IC) members. Last year, the IC helped draft a recommendation that Councillor Neville Abbott delivered to the Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) meeting, and which ultimately met with approval last November.
The briefing notes to the UBCM committee addressed three major points:
Mountain watershed communities are vulnerable to wildfire-related water contamination, which can compromise water quality for years after an event.
Small communities also face the challenge of the tremendous costs of the infrastructure required to address such contamination, which is often well beyond these municipalities' financial means.
As such, Lions Bay requested that the province acquire and maintain portable water treatment units to provide emergency assistance to communities impacted by water contamination, which would help ensure a swift response to the initial problem as well as minimizing the risk of long-term water supply disruptions.
The recent UBC study looked at impacts of wildfire-related chemicals on surface drinking water sources, and concluded that the chemicals used to battle wildfires continue to persist "across multiple contaminant classes", that wind and smoke plumes play a critical role in transporting hydrocarbons, trace metals and other organic pollutants far beyond the boundaries of burned watersheds.
The study also concludes that in addition to the impacts of wildfire-derived contaminants on aquatic environments, the chemical fallout can challenge drinking water treatment systems by reducing removal efficiency and increasing operation and maintenance costs.
This, of course, applies to communities that have water treatment systems capable of removing such contaminants. According to IC member Anthony Greville, Lions Bay does not possess this kind of infrastructure.
He says he wants to emphasize that for the past two or three years, staff, Council and IC members are doing all they can to mitigate any potential effects, and to advocate to the B.C. government for the supply of portable potable water treatment plants to assist in this mitigation effort. However he notes that past Councils have missed opportunities that could have helped.
"The 2008/10 project that would have allowed this treatment process, was downgraded at the last minute to save $1 million," says Greville.
He notes that while Lions Bay does disinfect its water supplies, it does not clarify or filter the water. "If we did have a fully functioning water plant, which included coagulation, flocculation, clarification and filtration, then the issues presented by the deterioration in raw water quality post wild fire in our watersheds, while significant, could be properly managed."
Greville points to the forthcoming 2025 Annual Water Report, which he says addresses the lack of infrastructure to manage such a deterioration. (Past editions of the annual water reports can be found HERE).
As to the recent study, Greville says it supports others that have come before, including studies from Kelowna after 2003 and after the Fort McMurray fires in 2017, as well as reports from California and Oregon.Â
In all of these cases, Greville says the "end story is remarkably consistent. Hence the recent push from Lions Bay to ask the B.C. government to inventory a small supply of portable potable water treatment plants for us, and other small communities without full treatment."
He says the long-term consequences of a wildfire in or around the perimeter of Lions Bay would depend on the size of the event.
"A small fire; we could manage as we have three watersheds to draw from. If one creek was contaminated, we could probably manage – money would have to be spent, but we would live to fight another day. A large fire on the mountain side that burns for days or weeks, and scorches the earth above the Village, and affects all three watersheds  – then without the portable potable water treatment plants we advocated for at the recent UBCM, the Village will have serious questions to answer. A clean water supply is essential for life."
He says that individual homeowners can help mitigate the risks of this kind of contamination in their own homes by installing point of entry and point of use (POE/POU) activated carbon filters on the taps in their houses (as seen in the illustration), and be prepared to address the regular maintenance, as required.
IC Chair Councillor Neville Abbot says that he has reached out to the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness members he met with at the UBCM, to promote the idea that since there are federal agencies that already have access to the technology and equipment that may resolve this concern, it would be a good idea to see all levels of government engaged.
"Wildfires don’t recognize provincial boundaries," says Abbott. "The solution could well be at the federal level."
In response to a recent call for public engagement into a national initiative to improve federal leadership in emergency management, Mayor Ken Berry wrote a letter on behalf of Council in January noting the "growing and unsustainable gap between the
responsibilities being placed on local governments and the capacity to effectively discharge those responsibilities."
He called for a federal emergency management approach that "includes predictable funding mechanisms, regionalized support models, shared technical services, and clearer delineation of roles and responsibilities across orders of government."
Whether that manifests as the Infrastructure Committee's requested portable water treatment units remains to be seen.
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