LOCAL : North County Protest Planned as Medfly Spraying Continues

North Orange County braces for the fourth in its now-regular malathion sprayings tonight, but opponents of the state’s Mediterranean fruit fly campaign are determined to make the event anything but routine.

Local residents, although slower than people in other Medfly-infested areas around the Southland to respond to the state policy, plan to step up their opposition with a 5:30 p.m. demonstration at the heart of the eight-square-mile spray area, at Brea Boulevard and Imperial Highway.

Barring strong winds, state helicopters will probably reach the Orange County spray area, which includes parts of Brea, La Habra and Fullerton, between about 10 and 11 p.m.

In Garden Grove, due for its first spraying Thursday night, malathion critics hope to draw more than a hundred local residents for tonight’s City Council meeting to voice concern. The issue may also come up at tonight’s City Council meeting in Huntington Beach, also part of a new spray area created last week.

County agriculture officials seem unperturbed by the mounting protests. Said county entomologist Nick Nisson: “The position is firm and clear as far as malathion not being a health hazard. So I don’t think anybody in the department has any apprehension or nervousness about the protests.”