More than 81,000 gallons of retardant were dropped on two of the biggest fires in the north state in the past two weeks. That kind of firefighting strategy is coming under closer scrutiny, though, as a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Forest Service to take a closer look at the environmental effects of dropping fire retardant on wildland fires.
http://www.redding.com/news/2010/jul/31/retardant-comes-under-fire/