Storm water quality following urban burning: What was learned from
the 2018 Camp Fire and other recent destructive fires?
Topic: Storm water quality following urban
burning: What was learned from
the 2018 Camp Fire and other recent destructive fires?
Speakers: Dr. Jackson Webster, Associate Professor
of Civil Engineering at California State University, Chico
When:Friday, December 2nd, 2022, 12 pm to 1pm
Where: Virtual (via Zoom)—Link to virtual
seminar to be sent upon RSVP
The recording of the webinar is available here.
Topic Overview
Wildfire occurrence and intensity are increasing worldwide due to climate
change. With increasing burning, destruction of wildland-urban interface
communities during fire may cause contamination of surrounding waterways
by ash and debris from burned structures, cars, and buildings. However,
the effects of burned urban residues in surface water are not well
understood. In this study, stormwater samples were collected following
the November 2018 Camp Fire, the most destructive fire in California
history with near 18,000 structures and thousands of vehicles burnt. To
evaluate the extent of the contamination, three watersheds draining the
burned town, as well as an unburned control watershed, were sampled
throughout the major storms and during base flow conditions from
November 2018 to December 2019. In total, nearly 160 unique
time-location samples were collected, these were analyzed for total and
filtered metals, nutrients, carbon, and basic water quality
characteristics (pH, EC, temperature). In addition, organic contaminant
profiles and dynamics via targeted quantification of 35
stormwater-derived chemicals and complementary HRMS suspect screening
was conducted on a subset of samples. The results highlight the impact
of urban burning on the release of contaminants into surrounding
watersheds and identified potential threats to human and ecological
health.
About the Speaker
Dr. Jackson Webster is an Associate Professor of
civil engineering at California State University, Chico. He
received his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of
Colorado, Boulder. Dr. Webster's research has primarily focused
on remobilization of mercury from soil during wildfire and the
subsequent geochemical cycling in burned watersheds across the
western US. Following the Camp Fire (2018), he expanded his
post-wildfire research to examine watershed contamination from
urban burning. Since the Camp Fire, his inquiry into the subject
of post-fire water quality has continued with multiple studies
on large wildland-urban interface (WUI) fires including the
North Complex (Plumas County, CA, 2020) and the LNU lightning
complex (Napa and Sonoma Counties, CA, 2020) where he has
engaged with state and local stakeholders to provide guidance on
post-fire storm water management and water quality concerns.
