Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

In the lab, USGS scientists analyze sediment samples collected from stream banks to test for contaminants produced by wildfires. The toxic chemicals can be transported downstream by runoff following rainstorms in the burned regions.

In August of 2020, the enormous CZU wildfire complex consumed over 85,000 acres in San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties, leaving scarred landscapes in the hilly region. Runoff from large rainstorms in the winter months can carry contaminants from the soils within these burned-out forests. Forest fires and the fmaterials they burn introduce chemicals into watersheds that can harm wildlife and contaminate drinking water. Here, research geologist Renee Takesue, of the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, samples stream sediment in the lower parts of burned watersheds to measure concentrations of several kinds of contaminants following major storm runoff in late January 2021. Our team hopes to compare these with samples taken from the same watersheds after the fire. Samples must be collected before too much time has elapsed since the wildfires, before post-fire storms wash the burned material downstream. 

A woman wearing a hard hat, personal floatation device, and waders kneels near a river taking a sample of mud.
Credit: Amy East, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center. Public domain.)
A woman wearing a hard hat, personal floatation device, and waders kneels near a river taking a sample of mud.
Credit: Amy East, USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center. Public domain.)

 

Get Our News

These items are in the RSS feed format (Really Simple Syndication) based on categories such as topics, locations, and more. You can install and RSS reader browser extension, software, or use a third-party service to receive immediate news updates depending on the feed that you have added. If you click the feed links below, they may look strange because they are simply XML code. An RSS reader can easily read this code and push out a notification to you when something new is posted to our site.

Was this page helpful?