Malathion Mist Is Released Over El Cajon

Armed with helicopters and malathion, state agriculture officials took their campaign against the Mexican fruit fly into the skies Monday night.

Normally bustling streets cleared of traffic, and some stores closed early as six helicopters thundered back and forth across a 16-square-mile area, scattering a malathion mist below them.

Outside the spray boundaries, more than 300 protesters from all walks of life gathered near Gillespie Field to shout their outrage and fear at state officials and the arriving helicopter pilots.

“Murderers!” and “Go home! No poison rain!” were the taunts from people with Mohawk hair styles and people with crew cuts; from people in neckties and people in tie-dye.

The aerial spraying, which began at 9:10 p.m., got its final approval earlier in the day when a judge refused to grant the city of El Cajon’s request for a 10-day restraining order against the spraying, pending a full trial on the suit.

El Cajon Municipal Judge J. Michael Bollman, sitting in Superior Court, rejected the city’s contention that the state had failed to adequately document the need for aerial spraying of the pesticide malathion against the Mexfly.

Bollman also ruled that there was insufficient evidence to indicate that the spraying would harm the environment or the public health.

Deputy City Atty. Steve Eckis said he was disappointed that a temporary restraining order was not issued. But he declined to seek an immediate appeal court review and said he instead will concentrate on preparing for a May 30 trial date on the merits of the suit itself.

Eckis remained insistent that the state had not clearly outlined the information necessary to substantiate its “findings” that a Mexfly emergency exists in El Cajon.

“I think the merits of the argument on the findings are still there. The judge ruled against us, but I don’t think that decision is correct,” Eckis said.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Roderick E. Walston said he thought the judge’s ruling made it clear that the city will probably lose in the trial phase of the case, too.

Eckis said he will meet with City Council members later this week for a decision on whether the case should be pursued further, in hopes of stopping the next two scheduled malathion sprayings.

If Bollman had delayed the spraying Monday, he would have been the first judge to do so of several that have considered similar cases over the last year in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

As the 9 p.m. target time for commencing spraying approached Monday night, El Cajon was ripe with signs of the approaching event.

Enterprising curbside vendors hawked car covers, as did gas stations and other stores. One car wash was closing early but would reopen at midnight so people could wash the sticky Mexfly bait--a combination of malathion and the leftovers of corn syrup makings--from their cars.

Telephone poles also sported hot-pink posters, put up at the last minute Monday afternoon, announcing that the homeless could take shelter in El Cajon Valley High School during the spraying.

The county and the state had declined to provide shelter for the homeless, because of their conclusion that the spraying would have no health effect even if people were caught in it, spokesmen said.

Around the perimeter of the spraying sites, and at hospitals and schools, state and county workers set out pieces of cardboard to sample the spraying pattern--to see that the malathion neither drifted outside set boundaries nor was dropped at concentrations higher than planned.

Monitors also were placed 2 miles outside the spray area, near the Santee nesting area of an endangered bird species, the least Bell’s vireo.

One observer of the event was Julia Routhier, the 12-year-old daughter of spraying project director Bill Routhier.

“I want her to be able to answer the questions that come up at school. That’s important,” her father said.

Among protesters, the event was regarded as significant in a different way.

“It’s like Vietnam,” said lifelong El Cajon resident Larry Hall, 28, above the roar of arriving helicopters. “They tell us it’s not going to hurt anything, but then they tell you to cover up your plants and your fish. Where does the truth start? It’s motel time!”

Hall said he and his pregnant wife, Juliette, were renting a room in San Diego for the night.

The El Cajon spraying plan closely resembles the protocol used in Los Angeles over the last year to kill the Mediterranean fruit fly. As Medfly spraying wound down this month, officials soon found themselves facing more spraying, this time for Mexfly infestations in El Cajon and the Compton area.

About the size of a house fly and twice as big as a Medfly, Mexican fruit flies ruin crops by laying their eggs inside the ripening fruit. The larvae hatch inside the fruit, feed on it, then drop to the ground to pupate and eventually emerge as yellow-brown striped adults.

In San Diego County, a $92-million-a-year fruit industry is at risk, agriculture officials say. Agriculture is the fourth-largest industry in the county.

The San Diego County spraying resulted from the trapping of a mature male Mexfly and two egg-bearing females since April 25.