COUNTYWIDE : Supervisors End Medfly Emergency

More than six months after they were first dragged into the debate over malathion spraying, county supervisors finally washed their hands of the issue Tuesday, unanimously voting to end the county’s state of emergency over the Mediterranean fruit fly.

The state has completed its spraying program in Orange County, and so there is no further need for the emergency declaration.

“This is the day I’ve been looking forward to,” Board Chairman Don R. Roth said as the supervisors took up the motion to end the emergency.

Roth, who has said he opposes malathion spraying, nevertheless voted to extend the county’s emergency declaration several times in recent months. He reasoned that the declaration helped shield the county from potential lawsuits brought because of the spraying and that rejecting it would do nothing to stop the aerial applications.

Despite such arguments, the biweekly vote to extend the emergency became a regular source of friction among board members. Members of the public also chastised the supervisors about the declarations.

So it was with palpable relief that the board disposed of the issue Tuesday. After recording the vote, Roth banged his gavel softly and proclaimed: “No more discussion about the pest.”