Rain, Court Delay Malathion Spraying

RIVERSIDE â€”  The aerial application of the insecticide malathion over an 18-square-mile area of Corona and Norco--which had been slated to begin Monday night--has been postponed at least until next week.

State agricultural officials announced Monday morning that they had postponed plans to begin aerial spraying for a week because of inclement weather. In the afternoon, a Superior Court judge ruled that the aerial spraying warranted further review, guaranteeing that the helicopters would not fly until Feb. 2, when he will hear further arguments on the issue.

Aerial spraying is necessary, state officials maintain, because the discovery of a mated Mediterranean fruit fly in Corona last month required quick and dramatic action before the fruit-ravaging pest spreads into agriculture-rich lands elsewhere in the state. The aerial application is part of a massive effort to eradicate the Medfly; in Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Orange counties, billions of sterile insects will be released to combat the pest.

Corona city officials filed a lawsuit Friday, asking that the spraying be blocked, at least temporarily, until the public health consequences of using the insecticide could be debated. Critics of the use of malathion say studies show there is a potential for danger to human health.

But even before Monday’s hearing before Riverside County Superior Court Judge Victor Miceli began, state Department of Food and Agriculture officials said the spraying would be delayed a week because of the threat of rain, which would nullify its effects.

Later, Miceli said he wanted to study the issue more and give attorneys the chance to provide him with additional information and arguments.

He rescheduled the hearing for the morning of Feb. 2, when he could either order the helicopters grounded or allow that night’s spraying to occur.

Opponents of the spraying said the delay marked a victory for them because the longer the spraying is delayed, the less serious the appearance of a single Medfly--with no additional findings--would seem.

“The Medfly has already gone through two life cycles without additional sightings, so I don’t know what the emergency is anymore,� Corona City Councilman Jeff Bennett said.

But state officials said that with the judge’s blessing, the sprayings would occur sooner or later, weather permitting.

“We won’t walk away from this,� said Isi Siddiqui, assistant director of the food and agriculture department. Because the life cycle of the Medfly is slowed during winter months, hundreds of Medfly pupae may be in the ground, on the verge of hatching, he said.

A nine-day delay would not be fatal in the state’s attack on the Corona infestation, Siddiqui said.

Attorneys for the city of Corona contend that the aerial spraying jeopardizes public health. Furthermore, they argue, the state failed to abide by its own guidelines by wanting to spray without conducting an environmental impact report.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Charles W. Getz said outside the courtroom that Corona’s lawsuit was similar to more than 35 others filed in previous years against the state, attempting to keep the helicopters from flying over various communities. In 1989-90, the state sprayed more than 500 square miles of Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties in an attempt to rid the region of the Medfly.

The state prevailed in each of the previous court challenges, Getz said, and the sprayings went forward.

“Corona did a very good job (in preparing the court challenge) in the time it had, but the theories they’ve raised have been heard before,� Getz said.

The state did not need to file an environmental impact report, Getz said, because Gov. Pete Wilson last week issued an emergency declaration allowing the spraying to occur.