El Cajon Gets Its Second Dose of Malathion : Health: A Superior Court judge, ruling on evidence presented in a three-day trial last week, denied the city’s request to halt the spraying aimed at Mexflies.

For the second time in two weeks, six helicopters laden with malathion flew over El Cajon Monday night spraying a 16-square-mile area with sticky droplets meant to lure and kill Mexican fruit flies.

The aerial spraying, the second of three planned applications, began just after 9 p.m. when the helicopters lifted off from Miramar Naval Air Station and headed toward El Cajon. Like the first spraying, on May 21, it was scheduled to last about two hours.

Earlier in the day, attorneys for the city of El Cajon had fought in vain to stay the spraying, saying it posed a nuisance and that state agriculture officials had violated several laws when they implemented the eradication plan.

But sitting Superior Court Judge J. Michael Bollman, ruling on the evidence presented in a three-day trial last week, denied the city’s request.

After praising the lawyers in the case for their “Herculean effort” in filing and completing the lawsuit in just 17 days, he ruled that the state had not violated any environmental protection statutes that applied during a state of emergency. He also found that El Cajon had failed to prove that the spraying of malathion was a nuisance in the legal sense.

When Deputy City Atty. Stephen Eckis requested that Bollman stay the spraying pending the city’s appeal, Bollman refused, saying he believed “it would be improper for me to do so.” Eckis later filed an appeal, but the 4th District Court of Appeal refused to stay the spraying, citing an insufficient showing.

“I’m disappointed,” Eckis said. “The testimony indicates that there are real impacts on the insect world, there are real impacts on the people short-term, and I think there are potential health risks that were testified to . . . that leave me, and I think everyone who was in the courtroom that day, still very uncomfortable.”

Eckis was referring to the testimony last Thursday of Dr. Samuel S. Epstein, a professor of occupational and environmental medicine at the University of Illinois School of Public Health in Chicago, who asserted that, because “the jury is out” on whether malathion causes cancer, the state’s spraying program should be suspended.

Bollman admitted Epstein’s testimony into evidence but ruled that his conclusions “are not accepted without challenge in the scientific community. . . . It is the law that disagreement between and among experts is not grounds to invalidate an administrative decision.”

Deputy Atty. Gen. Charles W. Getz IV said he thought the decision was “a victory for the environment, period. It means that hopefully the state can get rid of this pest, which is not native to our country, and keep the environment in San Diego County as is.”

He added: “Very certainly it is a continued confirmation that the state projects to fight these fruit flies are lawful, proper and not unsafe. People should be reassured that this project is not going to cause them harm.”

El Cajon Mayor John Reber, who is up for reelection today, said: “We thought we had a tremendous case according to law. The judge saw it otherwise. . . . We’ve done everything we can to protect the citizens of El Cajon.”

A third spraying is scheduled for June 18 and will be followed by the release of sterile fruit flies at the rate of 16 million a week. People with questions regarding the malathion spraying can call the state hot line at 1-800-698-6639, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays.