Bradley Aide Acts to Thwart MWD Opposition to State Toxics Initiative

Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s top City Hall deputy is battling to prevent the Southland’s largest water agency, the Metropolitan Water District, from opposing Proposition 65, the November ballot measure designed to keep toxics out of the state’s drinking water supply.

Specifically, Deputy Mayor Tom Houston has taken aim at MWD Board Chairman E. Thornton Ibbetson, whose firm owns 1,200 acres of farmland in the Imperial Valley.

The measure, which would impose strict controls on the discharge of cancer-causing chemicals into water, is strongly opposed by state agricultural interests, who say it would damage agribusiness by overly restricting the use of pesticides.

MWD opposition would be a valuable campaign tool for Proposition 65 foes in the heated election because district officials are recognized water experts. Even though the MWD is exempt from the proposition, some of its top staff members have been critical of it.

Letter Disclosed

Houston released a copy of a letter to Ibbetson from E. C. Giermann, corporate counsel of the J. G. Boswell Co., a major San Joaquin Valley farming firm.

Giermann concluded his letter urging board opposition with this “P.S.”:

“Ibbey, inasmuch as you have farming interests in the Imperial Valley, you will appreciate the enclosed list of agricultural chemicals affected by the initiative.”

Houston also sent a letter to Ibbetson saying, “I urge your disqualification from participation in the debate if you indeed hold farming interests that would be affected by passage of Proposition 65.”

Houston said he entered the fight after other board members told him that they thought the MWD governing body would come out against the proposition.

Houston and other Bradley aides helped draft the measure, which the mayor, the Democratic nominee for governor, supports. Bradley aides have said they hope that Bradley’s backing of the proposition will help him win environmental support in his race against Republican Gov. George Deukmejian, who opposes it.

Ibbetson said his firm, Union Development Co., owns 1,200 acres in the Imperial Valley, a rich farm area east of San Diego.

Will Abstain From Vote

“We’ve been farming it since 1951,” Ibbetson said in an interview. “We have always had farming interests. The company is 56 years old; it is not a newcomer.”

Ibbetson said he will not take part in the MWD board vote, scheduled for next month, on whether the board will endorse or oppose Proposition 65 or remain uncommitted.

“I personally am against the measure because the present laws in effect cover the water situation as far as toxics are concerned,” Ibbetson said. But, he added, “I will be out of town when the board votes.”

Ibbetson said he had sent copies of the Giermann letter to all board members.

The MWD’s assistant general manager, Myron B. Holburt, had recommended that the board vote to be neutral. But he accompanied that recommendation with a highly critical description of the ballot proposal, charging that it would, for example, impose on industry an unobtainable “zero tolerance level” of toxic discharges.

Houston replied that the initiative does not require a zero tolerance level. “Industry has an opportunity to show that its discharge does not pose a significant hazard to the public,” he said. “If they can’t show that, it’s zero discharge.”