A lawsuit filed by Forest Service Employees For Environmental Ethics (FSEEE) is seeking to see the United States Forest Service end the use of aerial firefighting retardants claiming it is not in line with the Clean Water Act.
The FSEEE is alleging that the USFS’s use of fire retardant on water is a pollutant and a National Pollutant Discharge System (NPDES) permit is needed under the Clean Water Act in order to drop pollutant’s into any navigable waters.
...On March 14, Congressman Doug LaMalfa of California District 1 introduced the Fire Protection and Wildland Firefighter Safety Act of 2023 that aims to create an exemption for federal, state, local and tribal firefighting agencies to use fire retardant without an NPDES permit.
“Fire retardant is an essential tool in wildland firefighting, especially in the West,” LaMalfa said. “Not only is it absurd to try to take away that tool, it’s flat out dangerous.”
On March 9, the California Forestry Association joined several California cities, including the town of Paradise which was destroyed by the 2018 Camp Fire, in filling an opposing motion to intervene with FSEEE’s lawsuit.,,more
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