When wildfires break out, one of the first tools is still the air tanker, dropping tons of red fire retardant into the path of the fire. The U.S. Forest Service is seeking a permit to use the red slurry under the Clean Water Act, the result of a lawsuit filed against the agency by Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
We recently spoke to the organization's leader about the dangers of fire retardant, especially to waterways. Here we get a defense of the tactic from the National Association of Forest Service Retirees. w Steve Ellis is the board chair of NAFSR and our guest, giving us an extended defense of the tanker planes and their payloads in firefighting.