Supervisors Turn Aside Doubts About Medfly Spraying

Finally, it was her turn. But before Nettie Castle, a retired schoolteacher from Garden Grove, could tell the powers-that-be what she thinks of malathion spraying, Supervisor Don R. Roth interrupted her.

“ We don’t do the spraying,” he said. “It’s out of our control. It’s the state that does the spraying.”

Nettie said that she understood that, as did the others who had addressed the board before her. Still, she wanted to say her piece. She got caught in the spraying last month and came down sick.

Despite all the manicured talk about no risk that she had just heard from state officials, Nettie thought that getting doused in malathion was not a good thing.

She remembered when they used to X-ray feet at the shoe store to figure out which shoes would be the best fit. They don’t do that anymore. And what about generic drugs, she wondered. Turns out now that some of them aren’t too good for you either.

“Maybe you could tell the governor that down here we are kind of different,” she said. “We don’t like this. I wonder if it is some manner of getting even? It seems like they are going to do a lot of dumping on us.”

Roth cracked a smile. He said he liked Nettie’s style. Then he dismissed her.

Neither she nor any of the other 30 people who told the Board of Supervisors that they opposed aerial malathion spraying could change his mind. Roth never wavered.

After nearly five hours of testimony Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors voted 3 to 2 not to revoke the so-called Medfly emergency in Orange County.

This was expected. Nothing was changed. The buck just passed a little further down the line.

Roth and Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, who suggested that those made ill by the spraying simply move out of the area, said they supported Gov. Deukmejian’s emergency declaration that allows the aerial malathion spraying wherever state entomologists see fit.

Even if they opposed the spraying, they stressed, the Board of Supervisors was powerless to stop it. But by also declaring Orange County a disaster area, they would protect the county from liability in the event that it is named in a lawsuit.

In other words, declare an emergency and protect yourself from any legal consequences.

Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez softened his own support by proposing an amendment--which he, Riley and Roth passed--that said the declaration of an emergency does not necessarily mean that the county advocates aerial spraying.

Harriett M. Wieder and Roger R. Stanton, whose districts include the 36 square miles in the current Medfly target range, said in essence that that was a lot of poppycock. Their constituents were watching. They voted no.

So far, three Medflies have been found in Orange County: two in Westminster and one in Brea. Isi Siddiqui, the assistant director of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, said that could mean that 1,500 to 3,000 Medflies are really on the loose here.

This, in the eyes of the state, is an emergency. And maybe it truly is. But state officials, and it seems most of the supervisors, don’t like to hear any doubts.

When Stanton hinted that the state reaction might be overblown, Siddiqui said he should give him a lesson in Entomology 101.

And initially, the state discounted the public concerns entirely. It was only Monday, after Wieder and a delegation of Orange County city officials flew to Sacramento to protest, that plans were announced to monitor air and water quality after the Southern California sprayings. A health advisory panel will also be formed.

Perhaps, as state officials suggest, those who are caught in the trenches of the war on the Medfly should not be concerned that opinions are mixed on the safety of malathion spraying. You’ll see, they say. It will all work out just fine.

But at Tuesday’s meeting, it was clearly the minority who appeared to believe, rightly or wrongly, that everything would indeed work out as the state promised.

Most in the crowd, however, seemed outraged and scared.

One woman’s sister, extremely chemically sensitive, cannot now live in her own house in Garden Grove. One father pleaded on behalf of his 2-year-old daughter, who has trouble drawing her breath. Another woman said she was frustrated to hear that her voice doesn’t matter, that a dictator in Sacramento was making sure that democracy does not prevail.

As I listened to this parade of supplicants--all of them asking that their voice be heard--I couldn’t help wondering why so many minds appeared to be closed to what they had to say.

They may be needlessly alarmed, or they might just have a point. The Orange County Board of Supervisors should have voted against extending the county state of emergency.

It may not have stopped the spraying, but it would have shown the voters of this county that at least their concerns are being heard.

Dianne Klein ‘s column appears Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Readers may reach Klein by writing to her at The Times Orange County Edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626, or calling (714) 966-7406.