With wildfire seasons getting longer and hotter, the U.S. Forest Service says dropping fire retardant is a key tool, but the red chemical is lethal to aquatic life.
OMAK, Wash. — The U.S. Forest Service invented fire retardant in the 1950s and for decades the agency has said it’s one of the most important tools to slow the progression of fast-moving wildfires. But when the bright red retardant, dropped from aircraft, accidentally misses the mark and ends up in waterways, it can be lethal to aquatic life, including salmon and steelhead on the endangered species list.
A decade before, the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation began restoration efforts on the creek to rehabilitate historic steelhead and salmon spawning grounds. Fish populations were devastated by the construction and operation of a timber mill in the 1920s. But the restoration project experienced a major setback with the retardant drops. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the mistakes by the Forest Service brought “catastrophic environmental harm” to the fragile creek.
For 70 years, the USFS didn’t track or report how much retardant was mistakenly getting dropped into waterways. Litigation from 2010 required the agency to start keeping records. Last year,From 2012 to 2019, the USFS dropped retardant into or near water 459 times, all on the West Coast. The drops totaled 760,000 gallons, according to the USFS. KING 5 found that includes 45 drops in the northwest, including waterways in the Gifford Pinchot and Okanagan-Wenatchee National Forests.
). “Here we’ve got the agency charged with protecting that water actually being the biggest polluter of that water out there.”“Ensuring we can continue to use retardant to protect homes and communities is a priority. We believe retardant can be delivered without compromising public health and the environment,” wrote USFS National Press Officer John Winn.testified before a congressional committee that they make every effort to use retardant safely.
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