L.A. Panel Joins Foes of Medfly Spraying : Malathion: A City Council committee recommends legal action to halt aerial attack on the pest, saying human safety is not assured.

A Los Angeles City Council committee joined the growing opposition to aerial malathion spraying Monday by unanimously recommending that the city take legal action against the state to stop the helicopter assault on the Medfly.

The three members of the Arts, Health and Humanities Committee said that, despite hours of testimony from state experts, they remain unconvinced that using malathion over populated areas is safe.

Committee Chairman Joel Wachs said he believes that the medical studies presented by the state to support malathion spraying are inadequate and outdated. He added that with so many infestations over the past few years, he is increasingly skeptical that spraying will be able to eradicate the fruit-destroying pest.

“It remains my belief that the state must either prove the spraying is safe, or halt it until it does,” Wachs said. “I think it is so clear that there is sufficient doubt and conflict of opinion.”

The committee recommendation to pursue a lawsuit will be taken up by the full council next Tuesday.

While the committee was considering its recommendation, two environmental groups, Pesticide Watch and the National Resources Defense Council, announced plans to file their own legal challenge to the spraying program, which covers more than 380 square miles in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

Mary D. Nichols, senior attorney with the national resources council, said her group has been discussing its proposed suit, which it intends to file in several weeks, with the Los Angeles city attorney.

“We are trying to coordinate our cases to share legal strategies and the use of experts,” she said.

The threat of legal action from Los Angeles and the environmental groups comes two weeks after the cities of Garden Grove, Huntington Beach and Westminster tried unsuccessfully to stop spraying in their areas. The three Orange County cities were the first in the area to take legal action. A Sacramento Superior Court Judge turned down their request for a temporary restraining order, but the cities are plan to refile the action Thursday .

Barbara Buck, spokeswoman for the Irvine-based Western Growers Assn., said the threat of new lawsuits signals a potentially dire turn in the debate over spraying.

“There is the great danger that the public is becoming polarized and it could happen very quickly,” she said. “There are a lot of farmers who can’t believe that people are upset and they are just realizing that they need to become involved.”

Isi Siddiqui, assistant director of the state Department of Food and Agriculture, agreed, saying that if the suits succeed in halting the spraying, the Mediterranean fruit fly could become entrenched in Southern California and eventually spread north to the farm-rich San Joaquin Valley. But he added that the state is confident it will win any court challenge.

“We have complied with all the requirements of the law,” Siddiqui said. “I don’t think there has been any failure on our part.”

Deputy Los Angeles City Atty. Keith Pritsker said that if the City Council approves legal action, the complaint will probably challenge what he called the state’s failure to properly notify residents of the spraying, its lack of proof that malathion is safe and its failure to substantiate that spraying is necessary. Pritsker said the action would probably be filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Nichols said the National Resources Defense Council’s proposed action would focus on an emergency order signed by Gov. George Deukmejian last August that cleared the way for the state to spray residential neighborhoods under a special permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The attorney said the suit, in part, will contend that the emergency order was unwarranted, because agricultural officials had failed to evaluate thoroughly other ways of battling the Medfly.

“It has been a hit-or-miss approach and the spraying is ordered when it is convenient for the state,” Nichols said.

At a press conference Monday announcing the national resources group’s proposed suit, Assemblymen Richard Katz (D-Sepulveda), a critic of the spraying, and Charles Calderon (D-Alhambra) said they intend to push a resolution in the Legislature requesting a halt to spraying until a newly formed state panel completes studies on the health effects of malathion.