The Mendocino County Fire Safe Council (MCFSC) is allocating close to 200 free water tanks to more than a dozen Firewise Communities, Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils, and fire departments throughout the county.

In 2022, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) allocated $10 million to purchase water tanks as part of its Small Communities Drought Relief program. The one-time water tank portion of the program is ending at the close of this fiscal year. Alena Misaghi, a senior water resource engineer in Fresno and assistant program manager for the Small Community Drought Relief program, reported that about 1,000 tanks will be distributed across California as a result of the program, with roughly 450 of them going to Mendocino County.

*Water tanks being delivered to the Mendocino City Community Services District. Image courtesy of Ryan Rhoades (MCCSD Superintendent)*

There were no income requirements for the grant, but only public agencies such as cities and counties, tribes, water districts, and nonprofits were eligible to apply. A minimum of five 2,500-gallon tanks were delivered to each applicant, to be distributed to residents in their communities.

MCFSC spread the word as soon as the Mendocino County Department of Transportation reached out with news of the opportunity. Soon, the Laytonville Grange, the Cahto Tribe of the Laytonville Rancheria, and other organizations put in requests on behalf of local residents. On the coast, the Mendocino City Community Services District (for the village of Mendocino) and the Mendocino Fire Protection District collaborated to receive 65 tanks.

During the drought of 2021, the town of Mendocino was famously short on water. Nearby water districts restricted water sales to customers within their own boundaries. An initiative to truck water from Ukiah, which has abundant groundwater, made national and even international headlines.

MCCSD Superintendent Ryan Rhoades recalled telling the State at the time that he thought a water-storage program would be a much more cost-effective option. “I don’t know if it was because of us,” he said recently. “Probably not, but in 2022, DWR started a water tank program.” Early this year, he too received a notice from the Mendocino County DOT about the free tank opportunity for local residents. He has fielded requests from as far away as Willits, but said that people who live within his fire district boundary will have first priority. He is maintaining a waiting list in case recipients who are already in line are unable to accept tanks for some reason. As of April 9, twenty of the tanks had already arrived at MCCSD’s water-treatment plant. The new owners will be responsible for covering the cost of installation.

Misaghi reported that about fifteen organizations in Mendocino County reached out to her, though not all of them finalized an agreement to receive tanks. She noted that the water must be used for domestic or emergency purposes, not for irrigation or landscaping. In all, about half of the tanks in the DWR program will find their home in the northern part of the state. “Mendocino County is popular!” Misaghi remarked.

Water tanks are also popular. The MCFSC runs an annual Micro-Grant program that funds small neighborhood fire-resiliency projects, and one of the most common items that communities request is water tanks. “We’ve had a lot of practice allocating these water tanks,” said Eva King, MCFSC’s Community Outreach Coordinator.

All that practice came in handy when it was time to start delivering the tanks. “Especially in rural communities like Mendocino County’s, you’re looking at a lot of long dirt driveways, a lot of tight turns, and a lot of overgrown vegetation,” King noted. “A lot of the same complications, actually, that fire engines have when they’re trying to respond to wildfires.”

That is part of the reason the MCFSC leans so heavily on Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils, who have the local knowledge to pinpoint who needs what. “We have such a massive county, with so many different communities,” King explained. “That’s where we rely on our Neighborhood Fire Safe Council leaders to reach out to their own communities to make sure that when these types of opportunities arise, they are able to disseminate that information, make sure it gets out to their neighborhoods, make sure that people are able to apply for these types of grants, and that they have access to opportunities like free water tanks or other community resources. In Mendocino County, it’s one of the most impactful ways to get the word out.”

Hearing about opportunities like this is a great reason to be connected with a Neighborhood Fire Safe Council or Firewise Community, and MCFSC has over 80 affiliated groups throughout the county (visit https://www.firesafemendocino.org/nfsc).