Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2020CA302B

Water and Wildfire in California Workshop

Institute: California
Year Established: 2020 Start Date: 2020-03-01 End Date: 2021-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $39,768 Total Non-Federal Funds: $6,364

Principal Investigators: Doug Parker

Project Summary: Large wildfires in California, particularly the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and the Camp Fire in 2018, have raised new and emergent questions about the impacts of wildfire on water. While there has been some research on the ecosystem impacts of wildfire in wildland areas, there has been very little related to how wildfires affect municipal and household level water supply or quality. Indeed, there are many crucial concerns arising related to water and fire in California that necessitate interdisciplinary collaboration and coordination with management agencies as, at this time, no single entity has the answers. In fact, even understanding the scope of the potential problem is a necessary first step. We propose a two day workshop to be held in the general Sacramento region to make the location as central as possible for no more than 50 invited participants. The first day will involve presentations from various participants representing public health, wildfire, water, and related disciplines. For the second day, we will turn our attention to smaller groups that can begin to take on more specific aspects of the problem: one group focused on municipal water management challenges, one on larger scale water supply and infrastructure issues, and another focused on ecosystems.