Wildfires pose a growing threat to water security because they contaminate groundwater, disrupt soil microbial communities, and disable wastewater treatment plants, reducing access to safe water.[6] Large, highly destructive wildfires alter vegetation, soils, and watershed processes, which regulate water flow and water quality, and increase the risk of flooding, erosion, debris flow, and contaminants into rivers supplying urban water supplies.[1] After wildfires, water quality can be compromised and availability changes for watershed communities over decades.[1] Forest management to reduce fire risk restores snow reserves reduced by forest change and warming; on the north slopes, this yields about 12.3 acre-feet of snow storage per 100 acres, equivalent to about 15 Olympic swimming pools per square kilometer.[3] Seasonal snow provides 53 to 78 percent of the region's water for human consumption and is expected to decline by 50 percent by the end of the century.[3] Fires threaten the safety of drinking water by contaminating distribution systems, posing increasing risks to public health.[9]