My Foot on a Pedal That Isn't Connected to Anything

The Docket's Lab section occasionally constructs interviews with composite characters — imagined people whose circumstances, information environment, and emotional responses are built entirely from documented public sources. We do this because the civilian experience of a slow-moving climate situation is often invisible in the public record: no one quotes the person filling containers in her kitchen at 10 p.m. Bev Kettleman is not a real person. Her situation is.

On July 16, 2026, a lightning strike in the Blue Mountains started a fire that would burn through roughly a third of the Mill Creek Watershed, the source of 85 to 90 percent of Walla Walla, Washington's drinking water.¹ Over the next seven weeks, three separate emergency declarations used the same word to describe the situation.²³⁴ None of them told the city's approximately 35,000 residents to change their water use. The tap kept running. The city's direct communication to subscribers said testing had been increased and "no impacts to water quality from the fire have been observed to date."⁵

Bev Kettleman is a 44-year-old veterinarian who runs a small-animal practice in Walla Walla. She signed up for the city's GovDelivery alerts the week the fire started. She has filled every large container in her house with tap water. Nobody told her to.

You filled containers before anyone suggested it. What made you start?

Bev: I grew up in Oklahoma, so I fill containers before storms. You see something coming, you fill the bathtub. It's almost muscular. But this was different because there wasn't a storm coming. There was a fire that had been burning for weeks, and the water was fine, and I filled the containers anyway. My husband asked how much water I was planning to store and I said, "I don't know, how much water do we drink?" Neither of us actually knew. So I looked it up. A gallon per person per day is the standard. We're four people. I filled about twelve gallons and then stood in the kitchen feeling like I'd either done something prudent or something ridiculous, and I genuinely could not tell which.

The city sent a bulletin on August 27 saying no water quality impacts had been detected. Did that change anything for you?

Bev: It helped and it didn't. I read it carefully. It said what they were doing: increased testing, wells available, working with state and federal partners. It said what hadn't happened: no impacts detected. What it didn't say was what I should do. Not "store water." Not "don't store water." Not "here's what it would look like if we switched sources." Just: we're watching, and here's how to sign up for more watching.

Look, I'm a vet. I run bloodwork and tell people their dog's kidney values are elevated and we're monitoring. I know exactly what "we're monitoring" sounds like from the professional side. It means something is worth watching and I don't want to alarm you but I also can't promise you it's nothing. So when the city says "monitoring has been increased," I hear that in a very specific way. I hear myself.

The governor declared a state of emergency the next day. How did you process that sequence? "No impacts detected" on Tuesday, "state of emergency" on Wednesday.

Bev: That was the week I started doing translation work nobody asked me to do. The governor's declaration said the treatment plant "does not have the capability to remove" ash and sediment.⁴ Okay. But the city had just said nothing was in the water yet. So is this an emergency about what's happening or what could happen? And if it's about what could happen, when does "could" become "is"? How would I know?

I read one news story that said ash and sediment were "contaminating the water," present tense, like it was already in my glass.⁶ Then I read another story from the same day where city officials confirmed no impacts had been detected.⁷ Same day. Same situation. Different verb tense. Verb tense is doing a lot of work there, and I don't think the reporter knew it.

Did you read the emergency declarations as instructions?

Bev: No. And that's the weird part. I've now lived through three emergency declarations in six weeks and none of them told me to do anything.²³⁴ They're administrative. They unlock funding, mutual aid, federal coordination. I understand that now. But the word "emergency," at the kitchen table, with your kids eating cereal? That word means act now. And the acting-now part was apparently someone else's job.

What did you tell your kids?

Bev: That the city is taking care of it and the water is safe. Both of those things are true. My twelve-year-old asked why I filled all the containers if the water is safe.

You mentioned you can't verify any of the underlying conditions yourself. What does that feel like?

Bev: Like being a passenger. You know how when you're riding in the passenger seat you brake with your foot on the floor even though there's no pedal? That's what filling containers is. It's my foot on a pedal that isn't connected to anything.

The city has wells. Six of them, apparently.⁵ The water operations manager told the city council they have "three times over" what's needed for basic life support just from the wells.⁸ Great. I believe him. But I've never seen a well. I don't know where they are. I don't know what the switch would feel like. Would the pressure change? Would it taste different? Would someone call me? Would I get a GovDelivery email? I signed up for the alerts, I follow the city on social media, I read the Union-Bulletin. I'm doing everything the bulletin told me to do. And what I'm doing is waiting.

What are you waiting for?

Bev: Rain.

What about the rain specifically?

Bev: Everyone keeps saying the real risk isn't the fire itself. It's what happens after. The first big rain washes all that ash and debris into the creek and down into the water supply.⁴ The governor literally said "the impacts from wildfires do not end when the flames go out." So I'm watching a fire at 13 percent containment and being told the fire isn't even the main event.⁴ The main event is October. Or November. Whenever the rain comes.

I have never in my life paid attention to the first autumn rain. Now I'm going to watch the weather forecast like it's a lab result. Which, professionally speaking, I find very disorienting. I'm supposed to be the one reading lab results, not living inside one.

Is there anything that would make you feel like you had enough information?

Bev: If the city bulletin had one paragraph that said: "Here is what a source switch would look like for your household. Here is what you would notice. Here is how we would tell you. Here is whether you need to do anything." The Washington Department of Health actually has guidance telling utilities to "consider informing your customers on what to expect during and following a wildfire."⁹ Expect. That's the word I keep coming back to. I don't know what to expect. I know what's being monitored. I don't know what the monitoring is protecting me from experiencing.

Last question. Do you trust the system?

Bev: I trust the people. I don't know the system well enough to trust it or not. I think that's actually the honest answer. I trust that the water operations manager is competent and vigilant. I trust that the city council is taking this seriously. I trust that the wells exist. But trust and verification are different things, and I'm entirely on the trust side of that line.

The Paradise Fire was still burning as of early September 2026. The first significant autumn rains had not yet arrived.

Footnotes

1. Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, "Paradise Fire in Walla Walla watershed likely to burn for several more weeks," August 5, 2026. https://www.union-bulletin.com/news/local/paradise-fire-in-walla-walla-watershed-likely-to-burn-for-several-more-weeks/article_9bed2850-d723-4b4c-9b65-137ec0d9b3ff.html ↩

2. Apple Valley News Now, "Gov. Ferguson declares state of emergency due to Paradise Fire burning in Walla Walla water source," August 28, 2026. Reports city council declared local emergency August 12. https://www.applevalleynewsnow.com/news/gov-ferguson-declares-state-of-emergency-due-to-paradise-fire-burning-in-walla-walla-water/article_826d3e8b-8d00-40ad-837f-66b795345491.html ↩ ↩²

3. Elkhorn Media Group, "Walla Walla City Council declares emergency over Paradise Fire," August 17, 2026. https://elkhornmediagroup.com/walla-walla-city-council-declares-emergency-over-paradise-fire/ ↩ ↩²

4. Governor's Office of Washington, "Governor Ferguson declares emergency over wildfire's impacts on Walla Walla water supply, flood risk," August 28, 2026. https://governor.wa.gov/news/2026/governor-ferguson-declares-emergency-over-wildfires-impacts-walla-walla-water-supply-flood-risk ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

5. City of Walla Walla, GovDelivery bulletin, "Paradise Fire Update: Water Quality and Planning," August 27, 2026. https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WACOWW/bulletins/427137c ↩ ↩²

6. KIRO7, "Governor declares emergency over wildfire's impacts on Walla Walla water supply, flood risk," August 28, 2026. Used present-tense contamination language inconsistent with city officials' contemporaneous statements. https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/governor-declares-emergency-over-wildfires-impacts-walla-walla-water-supply-flood-risk/RW2W2OIBBFARVDEDHXRB6PAJFA/ ↩

7. Spokesman-Review, "WA declares emergency over Walla Walla drinking water threatened by fire," August 28, 2026. https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/aug/28/wa-declares-emergency-over-walla-walla-drinking-wa/ ↩

8. Elkhorn Media Group, "Walla Walla water supply secure amid nearby Paradise Fire, officials tell city council," August 26, 2026. https://elkhornmediagroup.com/walla-walla-water-supply-secure-amid-nearby-paradise-fire-officials-tell-city-council/ ↩

9. Washington State Department of Health, "Wildfires and Safe Drinking Water — Prepare, Respond, and Recover." https://doh.wa.gov/community-and-environment/drinking-water/wildfires-and-safe-drinking-water ↩