MENDOCINO CO., 4/18/26 — Close to 200 large water tanks are heading to more than a dozen Firewise Communities, Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils, and fire departments throughout the county, free of charge, through the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council.
In 2022, the California Department of Water Resources was allocated $10 million from the Governor’s 2022 budget to establish a water tank program 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—with roughly 450 of them going to Mendocino County.
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.
The Fire Safe Council 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 town 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 international headlines.
Community Services District 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, Rhoades received a notice from the county about the free tank opportunity for residents. He has fielded requests from as far away as Willits, but said that people who live within his fire district boundary 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 the district’s water treatment plant. The new owners will be responsible for picking the tanks up and covering the cost of installation.
Program manager 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 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. “You guys are popular!” Misaghi remarked.
Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils know the lay of the land
Water tanks are also popular. The fire safe council 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, the council’s community outreach coordinator.
All that practice came in handy when it was time to start delivering the tanks. “Especially in Mendocino County, with these rural communities, 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 fires.”
That is part of the reason that the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council leans so heavily on Neighborhood Fire Safe Councils, with individuals 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; the countywide fire safe council has over 80 affiliated groups (visit firesafemendocino.org/nfsc).
Sarah Reith writes for the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council