As the climate changes, catastrophic wildfire has increased in both frequency and intensity in many parts of the world including the Northwestern United States. The rising trend in wildfire activity triggers a series of risks to source water quality (such as elevated levels of particles, heavy metals, organics and nutrients) and thus causes challenge for drinking water treatment plants. In the past decade, the application of low-pressure membranes for drinking water treatment has experienced accelerated growth due to their superb efficacy in high quality water production, small footprint and relatively low costs. Municipal water utilities need information to well prepare for the fire-induced impacts. However, there was a lack of scientific knowledge of the wildfire (especially the ongoing or recently occurred fire) impacts on membrane-based drinking water treatment. Our hypothesis is that the excess nutrients and dissolved organic matter in the source water can enhance membrane biofouling in the wildfire-affected area. Thus membrane-based drinking water treatment is more vulnerable to the postfire water quality changes compared to conventional water treatment.  

 

The overall goal of the project is to investigate how the Wildfire affects source water quality and membrane-based water treatment process performance based on analyses and treatment of water samples collected for a two-year period post-wildfire. Guidance to increase water utilities’ resiliency to wildfire will be provided.