Water & Fire
Our nation is dependent on headwater forests for much of our water supply: Two-thirds of U.S. cities get their water from forested watersheds and 1 in 5 Americans rely on national forests for their drinking water. It’s not always clear to the public that the fires devastating forests and communities can have a direct impact on the safety and cost of their water, and that restoring forests today can protect our water systems in the future.
When fires go beyond our forests and into our neighborhoods, water systems are put under even greater pressure. One study shows excessive heat like that created by wildfires can cause plastic water pipes to degrade,generating contaminants that get into drinking water. Fire retardants can also cause unintended pollution as they get into existing water systems, while burned soil becomes water-repellent and has negative impacts for river and reservoir runoff.
While a lack of water supply hasn’t been a limiting factor in fighting ever-growing fires, our water distribution systems have. When it comes time to put out the flames, many fire hydrant systems aren’t up to the task purely due to design — they were set up to stop a single fire, not to save an entire community ablaze, which becomes the case when wildfires creep into urban areas like Los Angeles, Boulder, and Maui, just to name a few. Even when the flames are gone, water problems can continue as communities are often left without reliable access to clean water to drink or bathe, and increased monitoring and repair to ensure water quality rebounds lead to water affordability concerns. Beyond city limits, wildfires in forests and watersheds can still mean long-term trouble for the water nature and people depend on — contaminants can linger for up to eight years and affect water quality long after a fire.
As drought continues to persist across the West, we need to create the kind of healthy watersheds and resilient urban water systems that maximize water in nature and in neighborhoods. Rethinking and retooling our approach will allow us to fight fires when they inevitably start and to recover more sustainably.