COUNTYWIDE : Group to Fight Malathion Spraying

A newly formed coalition of residents opposed to spraying malathion to control the Mediterranean fruit fly plans to demonstrate next week outside the Board of Supervisors chambers, group leaders announced Friday.

Members of Orange County Citizens Against Malathion Spraying, a grassroots group of residents from 10 cities, will also attend the board’s Tuesday meeting, along with medical and scientific experts opposed to the spraying.

“There is a groundswell movement all across Orange County,” said Bob Taylor, a spokesman for the organization, which formed Thursday night. “We’re going to be out there in force. We see this as a real showdown.”

Taylor and others suggest that the malathion spraying represents a serious health threat, is an improper approach to preventing the spread of the Medfly and invades the privacy of residents in the spray zones.

Leaders hope to persuade the supervisors to revoke an emergency declaration that has permitted the spraying. In addition, they want to pave the way for city attorneys from Orange County municipalities to file legal challenges to the next planned sprayings, scheduled for mid-February.

“They’re experimenting on us,” Taylor said. “Just because this is a low dose doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. . . . It’s one thing to spray a few bushes in a selected way, it’s another thing entirely to spray across whole counties.”

Meanwhile, Huntington Beach City Atty. Gail C. Hutton charged Friday that the state government is reneging on its agreement to produce witnesses for the city’s effort to halt spraying.

On Thursday, Hutton noted, state Assistant Atty. Gen. Andrea Ordin pledged to make pilots and other witnesses available to answer the city’s questions. But on Friday, Hutton said, she learned that the state is only going to allow the city to ask basic background questions of helicopter pilots and other workers involved in the spraying operation.

Hutton said the city wants to learn from the pilots whether the aerial spraying is extending to areas that don’t need to be sprayed.

“We’ve been told that much of the spraying is extended just as a convenience for the pilots,” Hutton said.

The city is scheduled to argue its case in a Sacramento court Feb. 15.

But those legal efforts may be just the beginning. In Garden Grove, city officials are appealing to nearby cities and other communities to join in a proposed lawsuit aimed at stopping aerial application of malathion.

City spokesman John Bushman said letters were sent Thursday to 10 neighboring cities--Anaheim, Brea, Cypress, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, La Habra, Los Alamitos, Santa Ana, Stanton and Westminster. The letter also went to two dozen Los Angeles County communities that have been sprayed with the pesticide.

Bushman said the cities might consider hiring an outside attorney to handle the suit, rather than using city attorneys.

Superior Court Judge Michael Virga.