W is for Watershed
The moment that Blade Ranger saw Dusty making the drop, the Chief knew that the team was about to get their afts chewed out. Instead of the normal red iron oxide retardant that they were supposed to be deploying on this fire, the SEAT was laying down a line of off-white foam that was supposed to be exclusively used to protect wooden structures like the lodge. And to make the whole situation worse, the SEAT had made a rookie mistake and dumped part of the load into a nearby creek.
"Stop drops. I say again, stop all drops!" Blade ordered the rest of the aircraft in the formation while kicking himself into a hover. "Dynamite, I need a sit-rep."
"This fire is moving fast and hot."
"Can you hold it without areal support?"
"That would be a negative."
"Understood." Blade spoke with a practiced clip. "Dynamite, I need you to get your team to a defensible position and wait for the fire to burn over. Once you are safely in the black, I need you to double back and see if you can block Driverworks Creek in order to stop a chemical spill from reaching Anchor Lake."
"Roger that. I will radio you when we are in the black."
With that, Blade could see his smokejumpers quickly move downhill towards an open meadow. Knowing that Dynamite had her team under control and would call if she needed help, he turned his attention to the rest of the team.
"Cabbie, stay on station and keep an eye on the ground pounders."
"Roger." The C-119's engine roared has the jump plane entered a figure-eight centered over the pack of smokejumpers.
"Everyone else, time to get back to base." Blade said as he pointed his nose towards the air attack base and pushed himself out of the hover. "Windlifter, your spare water tank is operational, correct?"
"It is."
"Good, I need you to get back to base, top up your fuel, and swap tanks as efficiently as possible. Once you are done, I need you to pull water off Anchor Lake and provide support for the smokejumpers."
"Understood." Everyone could hear that the Skycrane was pushing himself hard, but he was still falling behind the rest of the air tankers.
"When you land, we will make sure that Maru is ready for you." Blade glanced at his two planes. "As for the rest of use, we will work with Maru to figure out who is going to get their water tanks scrubbed out first."
Dipper took the news pretty smoothly. This wasn't the first time someone had made an error with the mix, and given the complexity of her tank system, the flying boat knew that she was probably going to be grounded for the rest of the day.
As they approached the base, it looked like Maru was also taking the situation in stride. Windlifter's spare tank was already sitting on the side of the runway and the mechanic was lining up hoses on the edge of the apron. As expected, Dusty's speed meant that he was the first on the ground followed by Dipper. Both planes made a beeline to where Maru's set up was before Blade made his final, but they left him enough room to land comfortably in front of the temporary cleaning station.
"Maru." Blade barked as his engines wound down. "What happened?"
"It looks like a factory mix up. The container I used to mix the retardant had the correct labels but apparently not the right content." Maru sighed, clearly annoyed by the development.
"Okay." Blade chewed his lip. "We have been through this drill before. What is your suggestion?"
"Windlifter only needs a quick tank swap. I will get that done when he arrives…" Maru glanced at the clock on the wall. "In about 5 minutes. Dusty's scoops and tanks are the easiest to clean, so I would suggest putting him next in the cue. Your tank is the next easiest to clean, followed by Dipper. Once everyone's tanks are cleared, I will work on scrubbing down base tanks and Windlifter's contaminated external tank."
"That sounds like a reasonable plan, but start on Dipper as soon as you finish with Dusty." Blade started to warm up his engines again.
"Rodger," Maru bobbed his understanding as he started to attach hoses to water valves, "where are you going to be heading?"
"I am going to take one of the chemical tanks and head down the lodge to work the biologists to figure out what we need to do to clean up this mess."
"Have fun with that."
Blade took to the air knowing that this meeting would be anything but fun.
Blade made it into base minutes before the 30 minutes after sunset rule required him to be on the ground. The only reason that he managed to do so, was that the air traffic controllers down at the lodge knew how lousy he was at IFR and insisted that he either leave that moment or stay the night. None of the biologists wanted a cranky helicopter looking over their shoulders as they filled out reports, so he was ushered on his way.
Maru was still hard at work, tines deep in Dipper's tanks trying to get them rinsed out. Even though she was clearly uncomfortable, the flying boat still smiled as he approached. Blade was about to ask about the ETA for getting everything cleaned up, but Dusty chose that moment to roll out of the main hanger join the group.
"So…" Dusty didn't look the Chief in the eyes, which told him that someone on base had let the SEAT know just how much trouble his bad aim had caused the team. "Do we know what the verdict is?"
"It will take a couple of weeks for all the paperwork to be filed through the EPA." As the helicopter spoke, Dusty looked up with those puppy dog eyes of his. My goodness, the SEAT was nearly as good as the smokejumpers when it came to looking incredibly guilty. It was as though the plane was just waiting to be yelled at, the Chief sighed. There was no use leaving Dusty hanging like that. "But, I think, given our situation, they will let us off with a slap on the bumper. But next time you spread chemical on the landscape, please check where you are applying your retardant. We were just incredibly lucky that the foam wasn't water-soluble and that the smokejumpers were able to prevent it from getting into the lake. Under other circumstances, this situation could have been disastrous."
Dipper gave Dusty a sympathetic smile and a nudge with her wing. "See…I told you that everything worked out okay."
"But…" Dusty tried to start.
"Is dinner ready, yet?" Blade changed the subject.
"I…I don't know. Cabbie was still working on it when I left the hanger."
"Then why don't you go see if it is done." Then, when Dusty failed to move, Blade continued. "Now."
Dusty scampered across the runway, followed by Dipper, who offered to keep an 'eye' on him. The Chief knew that it was the flying boat's way of giving Blade and Maru the space they need to have a quiet conversation. The two vehicles stared at each other for a couple of rotor beats; then Maru started rummaging around in a nearby cooler.
"So, how long is it going to take to clean up this mess?"
"At least another two days to clean the tanks and about a week to clean the creek." Maru admitted as he cracked an open can of low grade. "As for cleaning up staff confidence issues? I think you just finished mopping up that problem."
Term- Watershed- Defined as the area of land that drains into a particular water body, watersheds need to be taken into account when managing a fire. If a team is fighting a fire in close proximity to a river, stream, lake, or coastline there are often additional restrictions on the type of chemicals that can be used. In fact, no retardant is supposed to be used directly over a water body because it can lead to fish kills, algae blooms, or harms to drinking water systems. When a retardant that is not rated for use near a water body accidentally gets into a water body, it is treated as a chemical spill which needs to be cleaned up. The first time is usually treated as an accident and only involves a boatload of paperwork. If it happens twice usually fines and other legal actions are taken.