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ESS Seminar Series: Dr. Sandrine Matiasek "Water quality impacts of burning at the wildland-urban interface: lessons learned from the 2018 Camp Fire"

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Please join us for this HYBRID Winter Seminar Series with Speaker: Dr. Sandrine Matiasek

Title: Water quality impacts of burning at the wildland-urban interface: lessons learned from the 2018 Camp Fire

Abstract

The November 2018 Camp Fire was the most destructive wildfire in California history, burning over 18,000 structures in Paradise, CA in less than four hours. The first storm of the season occurred less than two weeks post-ignition, prior to emergency clean up, and mobilized fire debris into downstream creeks. The transport of water contaminants from ash of burned homes and cars to surrounding waterways by storm runoff was a major concern for resource managers and community members. This study characterized the effects of watershed burning in a wildland-urban interface (WUI) on water quality during the first water year post-fire. We measured dissolved organic matter, nutrients, and metal concentrations and evaluated their fate and transport from the burn area to downstream locations during every major storm event of the wet 2019 water year. The Camp Fire had a measurable effect on metals, dissolved organic carbon (especially aromatic compounds) and total dissolved nitrogen (mainly nitrate). Total metal concentrations increased by one to two orders of magnitude compared to pre-fire concentrations. However, these concentrations rarely exceeded aquatic toxicity standards, suggesting that metals remained particulate-bound and contained by erosion control devices. This study advances understanding of post-fire contaminant fate and transport following a WUI fire in a region of California that provides drinking water for millions of people.

BIO: Dr. Sandrine Matiasek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at California State University Chico where she teaches aqueous geochemistry and serves as the Science Director of the Center for Water and the Environment. Her current research characterizes the composition of urban storm runoff following burning at the wildland urban interface. She also focuses on pollutant removal from urban storm runoff using green infrastructure. She studied dissolved organic matter cycling in irrigated watersheds using molecular and optical tools during her PhD in Hydrological Sciences at the University of California, Davis. She grew up in the French Alps and loves human-powered outdoor recreation.

A special  thanks to Professor Morgan O'Neill & Professor Jamie Jones for co-instructing and running this Seminar Series this winter by bringing you experts in the fields as we learn from them. 

 

Zoom Information:  https://stanford.zoom.us/j/98802388371?pwd=UEtUbTg3YXJ5emgzYnErMHNYUlFpdz09 

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