Pact Clears Way for Downey Pesticide Lab

The Downey City Council and Los Angeles County officials have agreed to a compromise that will allow a controversial pesticide laboratory and warehouse to operate in the city.

A months-long deadlock was broken this week when the council was assured that chemical fumigations would take place at the facility only in emergencies. In exchange, the city will drop a Superior Court lawsuit it filed against the county last December.

Fumigations could be required because nearly five tons of poisonous squirrel bait, which is to be stored at the facility, could become infested with insects, county officials said.

City officials have opposed fumigations because small amounts of poisonous gas would be vented into the air afterward. The county has maintained that the fumigations are harmless and that less gas is released into the air than would be during a residential fumigation.

The council members were not entirely happy with the agreement.

“I would like to see that there is no fumigation whatsoever, but tonight was a major breakthrough,” Councilman Roy L. Paul said.

Four council members directed City Atty. Peter M. Thorson to draft a resolution to consummate the agreement. The resolution should come before the council for final approval next month. The fifth councilman, Mayor Randall R. Barb, did not attend Tuesday’s meeting. County officials also must approve the agreement.

The 26,900-square-foot laboratory-warehouse is being built on a 1.68-acre parcel of county land near the southwest corner of Imperial Highway and Garfield Avenue. The offices of the county agricultural commissioner and Department of Weights are scheduled to move there in several weeks from an aging facility in Pico Rivera.

The lab will be used to test agricultural products, such as fruits and vegetables, that are brought into the county to make sure they do not contain excessive pesticide residue, among other things.

The warehouse will be used to store equipment, such as traps for fruit flies. The county also plans to use about 5,000 square feet of the warehouse to store thousands of pounds of pesticides, including herbicides and ground squirrel poison.

City and county officials locked horns last summer after construction had begun.

Downey officials argued that the facility was being built too close to residential neighborhoods and the Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center. They said a fire could send plumes of poisonous smoke throughout the heavily populated area.