Officials Abandon Spraying Deadline : Medflies: New outbreaks make control uncertain. At least one or two more helicopter attacks are planned, and applications could continue indefinitely.

A day after many Orange County residents thought they had seen the last of malathion, agriculture officials on Friday did a surprising about-face and said they plan to continue their aerial assault on the Mediterranean fruit fly indefinitely in the Garden Grove region and elsewhere around Southern California.

Details of the future course of malathion spraying were vague, but the unpopular prospect of more treatments was nonetheless enough to set off a flurry of shock waves, anger and vows of renewed protests among anti-malathion activists.

“They’re going to continue spraying here?” asked an astonished Huntington Beach Councilman Peter Green, an ardent malathion critic. “That’s insane. . . . I think the state is intellectually and scientifically bankrupt and has reneged on all its promises. I’m disgusted.”

Meeting in Los Angeles, agriculture officials conceded that they had been overly optimistic in setting a May 9 deadline for ending the pesticide spraying in most of more than 400 square miles of Southland spray zones--and for winning their 10-month-old battle to protect the state’s $16-billion agriculture industry from the Medfly.

But Roy Cunningham, a U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist who heads the state’s science panel on the Medfly, said: “We have not lost the war and we are not retreating. . . . Any war takes time, and we’re not in an easy campaign.”

The reversal on the spraying deadline was prompted by a spate of new Medfly finds around the Los Angeles Basin in both infested and previously uninfested areas, and by a potential shortage of sterile Medflies, which were to have replaced aerial spraying as the state’s chief weapon against the infestation, officials said.

Outlining the new plan, members of the state’s scientific advisory panel talked in general terms Friday about a more aggressive and frequent spray campaign that, for a broad swath of Southern California, will probably mean at least one or two more malathion dousings.

The malathion assault now is designed to avoid major crop damage later.

Damage is caused largely when females deposit their eggs into fruits, vegetables and nut crops, causing them to rot and making them unsalable.

As such, the Medfly represents a major threat to the state’s $1.5-billion fruit crop. In 1981, a Medfly infestation led to a $100-million loss for California growers and resulted in international quarantines.

The scientists singled out three areas that they said would see an unspecified number of future malathion applications.

The first two--Woodcrest in Riverside County and the city of San Bernardino--have each been the site of recent Medfly finds in the pest’s rapidly expanding infestation.

But the designation of the third definite spray zone--a 36-square-mile portion of Orange County that surrounds Garden Grove and Westminster--came as a surprise to officials and residents alike.

Just this week, state and county agriculture officials said in interviews that the Garden Grove spray zone was an ideal candidate for a quick transition from malathion spraying to the release of sterile flies because there have been no fertile Medflies found there since early February. If potent Medflies mate with sterile files their eggs will never hatch, thus ending the infestation.

Ironically, agriculture officials now say that it is the absence of fertile flies in the Garden Grove area that has made it a target for more sprayings.

Because the area appears relatively near completion of its treatment, agriculture officials reason they can finish off treatment with more malathion sprayings and thus avoid expending sterile flies that are already in short supply.

The Garden Grove area’s isolation--it is some 10 miles south of the closest spray zone--also made the use of sterile flies there a logistical problem, officials said.

A more detailed schedule of spraying is expected next week. But state officials, faced with a much-ballyhooed May 9 spray deadline that they ultimately found unworkable, made clear that this time they will not be pinned down on specific limitations for the sprayings.

“It’s clear that Garden Grove will get more sprayings, but when or how many is just speculation at this point,” said Medfly Project spokeswoman Connie Smith.

Under the latest plan, Smith said, Orange County’s only other spray zone, an eight-square-mile area that includes parts of Brea, La Habra and Fullerton and has been sprayed nine times, will not be sprayed again unless more fertile flies are found there.

The sprayings, which first hit Orange County in late November, have unleashed a torrent of local protests in recent months, including demonstrations that drew several hundred residents, ballot initiative drives and unsuccessful legal and legislative efforts to block the sprayings.

Malathion protesters around Garden Grove, many of them new to activism, have sought to refute the state’s arguments about the agricultural necessity of the sprayings by pointing to the alleged health effects of malathion and to what County Supervisor Harriett Wieder described Friday as the “dictatorial” way in which the state has enforced its campaign.

Local reaction was swift following the state’s sometimes combative morning press conference--even though there had been speculation for weeks that the state might not meet its self-imposed May 9 deadline.

Mollie Haines, a Garden Grove homemaker turned malathion activist, said: “It really doesn’t surprise me. I thought all along that the state was just throwing up this May 9 deadline as a way of letting all the protest die down. Still, this is just so disillusioning. It really angers me.”

Green, the Huntington Beach councilman, said: “They’re finding fruit flies in areas that they’ve sprayed eight to 10 times, and that to me says this stuff is not effective. . . . It’s just horrible (for state officials) to show such disregard for human health and safety.”

The news was even enough to sway some naysayers.

Don R. Roth, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and an early supporter of the state’s policy, said he was so frustrated with Friday’s announcement that he may vote against the county’s largely symbolic emergency declaration in support of the spraying.

With Roth’s support, the emergency declaration has always passed, usually on a 3-2 vote, when it has come before the Orange County supervisors for renewal every two weeks. But now, Roth said, “unless the state gets its act together and explains why this is necessary, I’ve lost faith in their ability to communicate with the people of California. . . . There’s just not much logic to all of this that I can see.”

Even James Harnett, Orange County’s agriculture commissioner, conceded: “I’m disappointed by this decision and somewhat surprised. We were hoping this would be the end, but I don’t have the data that the science panel does, and they’re the ones that have to make the call.”

Under the plan outlined Friday, any new infestations discovered through June probably will be attacked with a vigorous campaign of weekly sprayings, a shift from the intended strategy of spraying one or two times and then releasing sterile flies.

All repeated malathion spraying will have to take place every seven to 10 days--more frequently than the semimonthly pattern followed through most of the infestation.

Beyond Garden Grove and the two other areas that face certain continued spraying, officials said that the rest of the 400 to 470 square miles of existing spray zones face one of three main courses of action:

Spray every seven to 10 days for an unspecified amount of time; stop spraying on schedule and release sterile Medflies, or phase out pesticides after one or two more applications. In a few neighborhoods, such as Sylmar in the San Fernando Valley,, the pest is believed eradicated and the area will not face treatment of any sort.

Vowing a more aggressive attack, the five scientists who serve on the advisory panel also recommended that spraying now start after a single fly is found. The previous criterion was two flies. They also want to enlarge spray treatment zones by an unspecified amount to try to stop the infestation just outside the zone.

The plan has already been approved in principle by state Department of Food and Agriculture Director Henry J. Voss, the man who pledged in March--amid widespread political pressure--to replace spraying with sterile flies by May 9.

FLING INTO A RAGE--Garden Grove residents are angry to learn that seven bombardments aren’t enough. A31

POLITICAL FALLOUT--The decision to abandon May 9 deadline for malathion spraying has politicians on edge. A32