BILLINGS, Montana (AP) — A legal dispute in Montana could prevent the government from using aerial fire retardants to fight wildfires after environmentalists raised concerns about waterways being polluted by it. Potentially toxic red sludge being dropped from aircraft.
A coalition that includes Paradise, California, where a 2018 fire killed 85 people and destroyed the city, said a court ruling against the Forest Service in the case could put lives, homes and forests at risk.
An advocacy group suing the agency claims authorities are violating a federal clean water law by using retardants without taking proper precautions to protect streams and rivers.
The group, Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, has sought a court order preventing authorities from using airborne retardants until they obtain a contamination permit.
The dispute comes as wildfires in North America have grown larger and more destructive in the past two decades due to climate change, people moving into fire-prone areas, and overgrown forests.
Forest Service officials acknowledged in court documents that retardant has been dumped into waterways more than 200 times over the past decade. They said it usually happens by mistake and in less than 1% of the thousands of drops per year, and that the environmental damage from fires can outweigh retardant contamination.
“The only way to prevent accidental releases of retardants into water is to ban their use entirely,” the government lawyers wrote. “Such a ban would amount to a total ban on airdrops of retardants.”
Government officials and firefighters say fire retardant can be crucial in slowing the spread of a fire and helping firefighters stop it.
Forest Service officials said they are trying to comply with the law by obtaining a contamination permit, but that could take years.
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2023-04-23 19:08:35
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