Foes of O.C. Medfly Spray Gain Support

A day after persuading two Orange County cities to challenge the state’s Mediterranean fruit fly spraying campaign, malathion critics gained more support Tuesday from two state legislators but acknowledged that they still face an uphill court fight.

“Elected leaders are finally waking up to the anger of the people over this issue,” said Jerry Yudelson, a Garden Grove activist who helped draw several hundred malathion opponents to a City Council meeting. “But winning in the courts isn’t going to be easy; the answer may have to be a political one.”

In addition to legal challenges over the safety of malathion spraying, critics say they may take the state to task for what they call its failure to adequately inform the large Vietnamese community in Garden Grove and Westminster about the plans to spray in their areas Thursday night.

State guidelines require door-to-door notification in English--or in Spanish for Latino communities--but make no provision for other ethnic communities. Officials put out notices to the Vietnamese media and civic leaders in English, but some community members said they are still angry.

“This is irresponsible . . . to ignore the Vietnamese community,” said Co Long Pham, president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce in Westminster. “Not all of us understand English. . . . They have not done enough to properly warn us of the dangers and the possible consequences.”

Other community leaders said the notification problem is particularly troublesome because the spraying is scheduled just a day before the start of celebrations for this weekend’s Tet Festival in the Little Saigon district of Garden Grove and Westminster.

But Gera Curry of the state Department of Food and Agriculture insisted: “We’ve made an enormous effort to reach out to these people.”

Unanimous and unexpected decisions Monday night by city councils in Huntington Beach and Garden Grove to seek court orders to halt the state’s Medfly assault mark the first legal challenge in Southern California to the controversial policy, officials said.

And Tuesday night, the Westminster City Council followed their lead, voting 4 to 1 to seek a temporary restraining order blocking Thursday’s spraying. However, such tactics have failed in past court tests in Northern California.

Those cities and parts of seven others in a 36-square-mile area are to be sprayed Thursday night. While attorneys in Huntington Beach scrambled Tuesday to line up expert witnesses to go to court before then, lawyers for Garden Grove decided that there won’t be time for that tactic and will try instead to halt next month’s sprayings.

State Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove) joined the Medfly fray on Tuesday, becoming the highest elected official in Orange County to oppose the spraying. In a letter to Gov. George Deukmejian, he questioned the extent of the Medfly infestation and urged the governor to suspend spraying plans.

Malathion critics in Orange County got another encouraging sign Tuesday when county Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder abstained from voting on a proclamation of continued support for the state policy. She had previously voted for the measure, thought to be largely symbolic. It passed anyway, 3 to 1, with Supervisor Roger R. Stanton again voting against it. He had expressed his opposition to the spraying in the past.

Wieder said she thinks the state needs more information on malathion. “A lack of knowledge (among residents) certainly does breed fear,” she said, adding that, with more information, “the hysteria will stop.”

Meanwhile, state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) unveiled two bills Tuesday that would bring an immediate halt to the use of malathion in urban areas.

His proposal, which will almost certainly face strong opposition from the influential agriculture lobby, represented the first major political attack to date against the state’s policy.

But state officials, undeterred by a recent groundswell of opposition among both residents and politicians, said they are going ahead as planned with the first-ever spraying Thursday in an area of Orange County that includes parts of Cypress, Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Stanton, Orange, Anaheim, Westminster, Garden Grove and Los Alamitos.

“The legal statutory authority for the spraying decision lies with the director (of Food and Agriculture) and no one else,” said Curry, the state agriculture official. “I don’t really see that there’s an issue here.”

Charles Getz, a deputy attorney general who will defend the state against any lawsuits, noted that efforts to challenge the state’s spraying authority failed several times in Santa Clara County in 1980-81 and face a similar fate now.

The decisions by the Huntington Beach and Garden Grove councils to go to court were unexpected, surpassing even the hopes of the malathion opponents. Just last week, council members in Garden Grove refused to oppose the malathion spraying, saying that the city had no power over the issue. But they reversed themselves after hearing impassioned pleas from speaker after speaker at the jammed council meeting Monday night.

“I truly believe that the amount of malathion used in the spraying is not harmful,” Mayor W.E. (Walt) Donovan told residents. But he voted to seek court relief anyway. “I just changed my mind. It was a compromise really,” he said.

On Tuesday, Donovan wrote to mayors of the 11 other North County cities in the spray zone, asking them to join Garden Grove in taking “whatever legal means necessary to prevent the Medfly spraying.”

The Anaheim council voted 4 to 1 Tuesday night to ask the city attorney to look into what legal grounds the city might have to halt the spraying and report back on Feb. 6. Councilman Irv Pickler, who cast the no vote, said he wanted to take action immediately.

Groups and municipalities in the Los Angeles area, hit earlier and more often than Orange County by malathion spraying, have talked about a lawsuit but have not reached any decisions.

That Orange County cities took the lead on the issue surprised Los Angeles environmental activist David Bunn of Pesticide Watch, who has been involved in the protests.

“In terms of environmental and health issues, a lot of people think of Orange County as not exactly a hotbed of activism,” Bunn said. “This proves that false.”

Times staff writers Bob Schwartz and Ashley Dunn contributed to this report.

THURSDAY’S MEDFLY SPRAYING

ABOUT THE SPRAYING:

No repeat spray application has been planned at this time. Officials will continue to monitor the 1,500 traps distributed over an 81-square-mile area that includes that spray zone plus surrounding area. If additional flies are found, a second spraying would be possible.

The Medfly hot line in the Orange County Agricultural Commission office will be open from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. for residents with questions. The number is (714) 447-7118. The hot line will be shut down after Friday. Inquiries after that can be made to the agricultural commissioner’s office at (714) 447-7100.

The droplets that were sprayed in North County are from a mixture that is about three-quarters protein-corn syrup bait, to lure the fruit flies, and one-quarter malathion, the pesticide being used to kill them. About 12 ounces per square mile were scheduled to be applied over the target area.

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered new tests of malathion, to try to resolve questions about its effect on human health, state officials assert that it is “one of the safest insecticides in use today.” State officials say that the low doses used in aerial spraying pose no health threat to anyone, including pregnant women, infants, children, the elderly and the chronically ill.

They also say that no one should have any reservations about going outside after the spraying is completed. Animals with the exception of fish, which are considered very susceptible should not be affected either, officials say.

Agriculture officials assert that if possible, they would prefer to avoid the public concern and inconvenience that malathion use can cause by infiltrating infested areas with millions of sterile Medflies and thus preventing the spread. However, they say a shortage of sterile Medflies has eliminated that option, forcing sometimes repeated sprayings around the Southland.

AFTER THE SPRAYING:

Friday morning, all patio furniture, play equipment, tools and household items left outdoors during the spraying should be hosed down. If a car has been sprayed, it should be washed with soap and water.

Source: State and Orange County agriculture officials