SANTA CRUZ -- The Santa Cruz City Council voted unanimously in closed session Tuesday to "seek consolidation" and join Santa Cruz County in suing the state over the aerial spraying of the light brown apple moth.
The county suit, filed Tuesday, asks Santa Cruz Superior Court to consider a temporary restraining order today to stop spraying. The spraying is scheduled to begin in parts of Santa Cruz County on Sunday despite the protest of many in the region.
Both governments now contend that the state has failed to conduct an environmental assessment of the pesticide, CheckMate LBAM-F, whose long-term health effects have never been studied and which has never been sprayed in an urban setting on such a large scale.
"This will show the state that we're unified," said Mayor Emily Reilly after the 7-0 vote. "The county is bigger than we are and when the county moves on something, it's going to go a long way. Down the line, we're going to seek consolidation in court. I think we can beat this thing together."
The state Department of Food and Agriculture says the proliferation of the moth has to be stopped -- and soon -- if California's agriculture is to be protected. That's why it passed a "declaration of emergency," which allowed the state to forgo environmental assessment. In Santa Cruz County, more than 7,500 moths have been trapped, the largest number in the state.
The state contends the pesticides are safe, which EPA tests and independent chemists contacted by the Sentinel say is true provided that concentrations are low and exposure is minimum.
Many residents, however, feel that the moth does not pose a significant threat, and that the state has been exaggerating the moth's destructive powers at the expense of the health of the people.
"As soon as this stuff is sprayed, it will be in the air for 30 days," said Scott Eerkes. "It's going to be like invisible snow. It's going to be dropping all around us. Just because it's being dropped in the middle of the night doesn't mean it's not going to affect us."
The state sprayed the Monterey Peninsula in the second week of September and met similar opposition there. More than 100 people claimed the aerial spraying of a similar pesticide, CheckMate OLR-F, gave them respiratory problems and made it difficult for them to breathe.
But a Monterey County Superior Court judge on Oct. 18 lifted an Oct. 10 temporary restraining order on the aerial spraying, saying a Carmel group, Helping Our Peninsula's Environment, or HOPE, failed to prove the pesticide made people sick.
Complicating the matter was the fact that the manufacturer of the pair of pesticides, Suterra LLC, based in Bend, Ore., fought to keep the ingredients of both its pesticides secret, claiming them to be a trade secret.
Eventually, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered the state to release the ingredients of LBAM-F.
Whether Santa Cruz County will suffer the same fate as Monterey County remains to be seen. But city leaders think they have a good case.
The Monterey County Board of Supervisors and the city of Monterey never passed resolutions, Reilly said.
"They never took a stance," she said.
Contact Tom Ragan at tragan@santacruzsentinel.com.