Avoiding the Medfly Disaster

An important part of a politician’s routine is inspecting the damage after fires, floods, landslides or other disasters.

I’ve followed them past burned houses and mud-filled yards, taking notes on their expressions of horror and sympathy and promises of assistance.

Their words are predictable and likely to produce no results, and reporters feel stupid having to record them. But the attention of a President, a governor, a mayor or a county supervisor may bring temporary comfort to the victims. And the politician likes the publicity.

Now we have a disaster the politicians avoid. It’s the Mediterranean fruit fly--and the resulting aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion on large areas of Southern Los Angeles and northern Orange counties.

It’s been with us for weeks. Unlike the 1981 infestation, when then-Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. delayed spraying, this time it began quickly, over an 89-square-mile area around Dodger Stadium and in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. That didn’t stop the Medfly. The spray area was expanded, and many more aerial sprayings are scheduled.

The stakes are great. If those flies move over the Tehachapis, the huge agricultural business in the Central Valley will be threatened. There are political considerations as well. Agribusiness is a powerful force in state politics and its business allies in the Southland--banks, food retailers and others--have great clout in local affairs.

Environmental groups are opposed to the spraying. Although officials say the doses of the pesticide are comparatively small, opponents protest that malathion is especially damaging when there are frequent sprayings over a large residential area. These environmental groups have political power.

With the political impact potentially so great, and emotions so intense, it is understandable that political leaders would be more cautious in dealing with the Medfly than when confronting a brush fire.

Caution is fine. But not invisibility.

Where’s George Deukmejian? He favors the spraying. Why isn’t he walking the streets of those San Gabriel Valley communities that gave him such handsome margins in 1986, telling them that malathion is a painful but perfectly safe and necessary medicine?

What about Tom Bradley? Why hasn’t he been in Echo Park or East Los Angeles, reassuring anxious constituents? The county supervisors have not been especially visible.

Political pros have an explanation: Jerry Brown. He got mixed up with the Medfly when he was governor in 1981 and lost the Senate election the following year. The Medfly is a loser, they say. Stay away. Let the scientists handle the little devils.

That’s government by public opinion polling. It’s a widely criticized practice, but elected officials seem to be following it.

Deukmejian’s aides said he’s leaving it in the hands of his agriculture department. I called Bradley’s office to ask who was watching the spraying. The press secretary, Bill Chandler, didn’t know, but said he’d get back to me. When he did, he said the Medfly was mainly a state and county agricultural department matter. Inquiries, he said, are sent over to the county.

There wasn’t much satisfaction from two of the county supervisors whose districts include substantial parts of the sprayed areas in the San Gabriel Valley. Assistants to Pete Schabarum and Mike Antonovich said their bosses were letting state and county agricultural officials handle it. All three offices assured me they had had very few complaints.

Certainly, as the spraying has increased, more public officials are speaking out. The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday asked the state to take another look at the spraying and examine alternatives. Supervisor Ed Edelman, who also represents sprayed areas, has wondered if the operation has gone too far. Other local officials and state legislators are getting concerned.

The strongest opponent is the mayor of Monterey Park, Pat Reichenberg. The helicopters spray malathion over her hilltop cul de sac of one-story homes. She says most people in Monterey Park oppose the pesticide spraying. But Reichenberg and the others are not powers with a broad constituency, as are the governor, the mayor and the supervisors. They lack the authority of the governor and the supervisors over the spraying itself. And they don’t have Bradley’s ability to carry his message to many people.

Looking back on it, history may find that Jerry Brown’s personal conduct during the last Medfly invasion was quite admirable. He wasn’t sure the pesticide was safe. So he delayed the spraying as long as he could.

He may have been wrong. But he didn’t hide behind agricultural officials. And if we didn’t like it, at least we knew who to blame.