Turns out that Michael is blameless. While conducting research for the above I stumbled back across this:
Chapter 40; Part 1/3 @ 5:23
Kelly: We don't even have a gun truck remember?
Michael: Well, Saul and Puck are working on a new one right now.
All (both?) of the gun trucks are back under CJ's command (control) by the beginning of Chapter 40. I can assume that both/all the gun trucks were out on the scavenging missions. Therefore blame can rest squarely right back on CJ's shoulders for the disaster at the pumping station. Why?
The first rule of leadership: Everything is your fault.
Simply put, she should not have sent them out there without high levels of protection. Were I in that position, I would have told them:
"I don't care if you think you have the Hand of God in your pocket. Frankly, I'm a bit distrustful of him right now, seeing as how he dicked us over hard with this apocalypse and all. Life is too important, YOU are too important and the water project is too important to go out there with minimal forces and unproven weapons. Besides, it's about to rain anyway. Your trip to the mill will wait and this is not open for discussion. In the meantime, get to work on fine tuning and making more Mata guns."
Then I listened to the CJ, Datu & Glenn conversation again:
Chapter 40; Part 3/3 @ 1:57
CJ: Micheal's not back with the other gun truck and we're too low on fuel to not send out the other truck today to scavenge for more.
Is there a slight disparity in the timeline of events, as in we are hearing them slightly out of order... or should I be asking "What the Actual Fuck, CJ?"