Wildfires and Drinking Water Flavor: Insights from the Wine Industry
Oregon debates how to fund wildfire prevention and response. Legislation that would repeal Oregon’s controversial statewide Wildfire Hazard Map sits in the Oregon House. Republicans, Democrats, and the Oregon Governor negotiate. Oregon had a record 1.9 million acres of its 61.6 million acres burn in wildfires in 2024. That’s 3% burn in one year! And all the wildfires affect drinking water flavor.
What it Means for Drinking Water Flavor
From a drinking water standpoint, what are the ramifications of wildfires in Oregon? To answer that question an article published in the American Water Works Association June 2025 issue of Opflow put the focus on flavor.
Ash entering source water creates pollution that can be removed by conventional water treatment. It’s another story for the smoky flavor that cannot be removed even months after a fire. This flavor issue has domestic water purveyors scratching their heads. Little research exists as to what chemicals cause the smoky flavor. It’s a combination of compounds with a layering effect making it difficult to differentiate between odors that create the smoky flavor.
Clues from the Wine Industry
Interestingly, water quality engineers are looking to the wine and food and beverage industry’s production of liquid smoke for answers to drinking water flavor. The wine industry because certain wines include smoky flavors intentionally, which is not the case for the beer industry! Of course, fires carry other pollutants to the air which sit on vineyard grapes destroying this and other crops. This has a disastrous effect on Schroeder Law’s agricultural clients.
What Causes so many Fires?
In 2024, Oregon reported that human activity caused 70% of the wildfires. Debris burning was the leading cause. Unfortunately, Oregon expects that wildfires largely caused by human carelessness will continue. And so too their effect on source waters, particularly those that are currently provided for domestic use without treatment.
Water Treatment Operators will monitor and continue to adjust their treatment strategies to perserve drinking water flavor to our growing, careless population. Growers will continue to do their best to adjust harvest schedules to avoid crop loss caused by wildfires. In the end, it is up to each of us to be vigilant to avoid igniting fires.
