Zschau Shouted Down in Confrontation on Prop. 65

SANTA CRUZ —  Republican U. S. Senate nominee Ed Zschau is a politician who will try to answer any question put to him, but on Wednesday about 30 unruly protesters persistently cut him off and shouted him down as he tried to respond to their queries about his stand on cleaning up toxic waste dumps and safeguarding drinking water.

The confrontation, which took place before Zschau gave a speech at a conference on toxic waste, was organized by several groups from the so-called Silicon Valley that are trying to get the Los Altos congressman to take a stand on Proposition 65, commonly known as the “Clean Drinking Water” initiative, on the November ballot.

At a rally before Zschau arrived on the University of California campus here, the protesters predicted that the candidate would duck them. Instead, he detoured toward them when he got out of his car and waded into the throng to answer their questions.

Will Delay Position

Zschau said he will not take a position on Proposition 65 until he has studied all of its possible ramifications. The initiative would, among other things, double fines for illegal dumping and set stringent limits on the amounts of chemicals known to cause birth defects and cancer permitted in drinking water.

Zschau’s opponent, Democratic Sen. Alan Cranston, came out in support of the initiative earlier this summer.

But Zschau told the Santa Cruz protesters, “I share the same objectives you share. The approach we ought to be following is teamwork, based upon government and academia and the business community. . . .”

At that point, the protesters cut him off with incoherent shouts about the ballot initiative. One of them charged--incorrectly--that Zschau had voted against the federal Superfund for cleaning up toxic dumps.

Environmental Record

The congressman, whose environmental record includes sponsorship of wilderness legislation and support for a moratorium on offshore drilling, fired back, “I voted for the Superfund and you know it.”

The protesters pressed so closely to Zschau that he was backed up against a stone pillar.

The encounter was in sharp contrast to an event Zschau attended several days ago at a Fresno fruit-packing shed. There, farmers politely urged Zschau to oppose Proposition 65, saying it would force them to spend more time in court and less time in the fields.

Before Zschau went inside to speak at the Santa Cruz conference, the protesters complained that they had been left out of the meeting. Zschau then negotiated with the UC Extension Service to admit six members of the group.

In his remarks to the conference, whose participants included scientists, corporate officials and government regulators, Zschau said:

“We have to recognize that California’s economy is heavily dependent on industries that use and produce chemicals--in agriculture, the defense industry, in electronics and the petroleum and chemical industries.

‘Threat to Health’

“At the same time, the use of toxics in an improper way poses a threat to the health of Californians. People will simply move away from the jobs. But if we focus on solving the problem of toxics we can create additional job opportunities, rather than subtract from them.”

Zschau told the business representatives to “get out front on this rather than be dragged kicking and screaming.”

Although he has not made up his mind on whether Proposition 65 is the best way to deal with the problem of toxic pollution, he told the conferees, “Having the issue on the ballot is a good idea because it does help create this sense of urgency.”