HUNTINGTON BEACH : State, City Settle Malathion Suit Row

After a day of being charged with obstructionism, state officials agreed Thursday to provide the witnesses Huntington Beach officials maintain are important to their legal efforts to halt malathion spraying.

Before the agreement was reached, Mayor Pro Tem Peter M. Green had accused the state attorney general’s office of “obstructing justice” by refusing to allow subpoenaes to be served on pilots and state Food and Agriculture Department employees.

Green and City Atty. Gail C. Hutton said they believe that the spraying aimed at the Mediterranean fruit fly is being conducted on a far larger area than necessary and that is why they wanted to subpoena the pilots for a court hearing expected to take place Feb. 15.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Charles Getz said he was “outraged that there was even an attempt to subpoena (state employees)” and insisted that the state had been cooperative in providing information to the city.

Getz said his office had already taken steps to make information and potential witnesses available to Huntington Beach and other Orange County cities involved in legal action against the spraying.

Later in the day, however, Assistant Atty. Gen. Andrea Ordin said she had talked with Hutton and resolved the dispute. “We will make available the witnesses they are seeking,” Ordin said.

Hutton, in a subsequent interview, confirmed that agreement had been reached. “But up to now they’ve been playing hide-the-ball and sort of stone-walling this,” she said.

The city is attempting to halt the second spraying of malathion, which is scheduled Feb. 15. The same day, a court in Sacramento is expected to hear Huntington Beach’s arguments against renewed spraying.

Green, a Golden West College biology professor who has spearheaded the City Council’s effort to halt malathion spraying, denounced what he called “obstructive” tactics by the state attorney general’s office.

Getz, however, said the attorney general’s staff is simply performing its state-required role to defend the actions of a state agency, the Department of Food and Agriculture. Malathion spraying is conducted by the department to halt the spread of the Mediterranean fruit fly, or Medfly, an insect the department says could wipe out much of the state’s farm economy.

Green has charged that the state is allowing the spraying despite a lack of scientific assurance that the chemical mixture is safe. State officials repeatedly have said the pesticide, in amounts used in aerial sprays, is not harmful to humans. But Green has argued that his research has found reports saying that malathion can cause cancer and birth defects.

“Everything I have read has shown me there is no minimum acceptable dosage of malathion,” Green said. “I’ve been trying to find all I can on both sides of this issue.” He added that he has found nothing so far to allay his fears.

Hutton said she believes that the state Department of Agriculture is allowing aerial spraying over a much wider area than is needed. She said she had been told that the wider area was sprayed simply as a “convenience for the pilots.” The state has been guarding, with state troopers, the airport at El Monte where pilots fly the aerial spray helicopters, Hutton said, and efforts to subpoena a pilot had been frustrated until Thursday’s agreement.

Getz, however, said the state Department of Food and Agriculture had been cooperative.

“We’re providing all the information that is being requested,” Getz said.

Green disagreed: “The state has been acting like a totalitarian government in this.”