Oregon's Unprecedented Labor Day 2020 Fires: Impacts and Response

Abstract

Key TakeawaysThe prevalence of hotter, more destructive wildfires will continue to threaten water systems’ ability to maintain source water quality and effective treatment.Over the Labor Day weekend in 2020, wildfires burned more than one million acres in Oregon; case studies illustrate three communities’ recovery and restoration strategies.Preparing for and responding to wildfires is done most effectively as a collaborative effort of utilities and local organizations and agencies.Utilities can protect their drinking water systems from a distribution standpoint and at a landscape level (i.e., protecting the source water).