Pasadena Readies Copters to Cite Pesticide Sprayers

PASADENA —  The intensifying battle over the state’s malathion spraying campaign became a conflict of will and technology Wednesday as the city of Pasadena moved to use police helicopters to shadow and cite state aircraft for spraying the pesticide over city limits.

As the confrontation in the air grew, Pasadena city leaders and state agriculture officials each issued repeated volleys of threats and complaints, only hours after the city’s Board of Directors approved their novel plan to halt local malathion spraying against the Mediterranean fruit fly.

At an emergency meeting Wednesday, just past midnight, the board finalized an ordinance prohibiting formation flying by helicopters under 700 feet. The state’s fleet of helicopters release their load of malathion from an altitude of about 500 feet, technically in violation of the ordinance if they pass over Pasadena airspace.

State officials attacked the plan as not only legally unsound, but also potentially dangerous to residents on the ground and helicopter pilots in the air.

“I’ve tried to reason with them,” said a frustrated Isi Siddiqui, assistant director of the state Department of Agriculture. “We’ll file a complaint with the FAA first thing in the morning if they do anything unsafe.”

Pasadena officials countered that the law is on their side. They alleged that state helicopter pilots risk a dangerous midair collision by flying over the city in close formation.

“The whole point of this ordinance is to stop them from flying in tight formations over our city. That’s what’s dangerous,” Director William Paparian said. “We think we have all the authority we need.”

The Pasadena ordinance was hurriedly passed to clear the way for police to ticket the squadron of five state helicopters that had been scheduled to spray the city late Wednesday night.

Pasadena Vice Mayor Jess Hughston said board members already knew before the meeting that they lacked the power to enact an outright ban on aerial malathion spraying, which is allowed under the emergency eradication order signed by Gov. George Deukmejian at the beginning of the Medfly infestation late last year.

But Paparian said that if the city was unable to stop the spraying, it could try to stop the helicopters.

“We may not stop the spraying, but we’re going to give it a shot,” Hughston said. “We’re not going to roll over and play dead.”

Police officials told the board that they would send a helicopter to follow the state helicopters and monitor their spraying. If any state aircraft entered the city, its identification number would be recorded and the pilot ticketed for breaking a city ordinance.

The violators could be required to appear in Pasadena Municipal Court on misdemeanor charges that carry a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Police spokesman Gregg Henderson said the police pilots would not try to force the state helicopters to the ground or interfere with their operation.

State officials were baffled and infuriated by the new Pasadena ordinance. Charles Getz, the deputy attorney general who has been defending the state against several lawsuits to stop malathion spraying, said Pasadena has no legal authority to ticket the state helicopter pilots.

Getz said the courts have consistently backed the state’s position that an emergency eradication program overrides any local ordinance.

Elly Brekke, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Los Angeles, said that Pasadena has no authority to control the flights of helicopters. The power lies with the FAA, she said. “The city cannot preempt federal law,” she said.

Brekke added that the state has FAA permission to conduct its aerial spraying flights.

State officials also were concerned about the possibility of a midair collision caused by the presence of the city’s police helicopter. Jim Josephson, owner of the helicopter company under contract with the state to fly the spraying missions, said that if police pilots drew close enough to read the identification numbers on a state helicopter, they would be too close for comfort.

“I can’t believe any pilot would try to fly around us when we’re in a precision formation,” he said. “That’s just unsafe.”

Opposition to the Orange County spraying has been loud but so far ineffective. Citizen groups have demonstrated, Legal Aid Society attorneys have sued on behalf of the homeless, city governments have filed suit in Sacramento and one group tried to stall the spraying bureaucracy with a wave of applications for individual exemptions.

Yet sprayings are still being scheduled--for March 6 in the Brea area and March 8 in the Garden Grove area. About 44 square miles of mostly residential area have been sprayed so far--some parts as many as five times.