Permit Blunder Cancels Mosquito Aerial Spraying Over Fountain Valley

A failure by a contractor to obtain permits prompted mosquito-control officials today to cancel aerial spraying of pesticide to control the West Nile Virus for the rest of the season even as five people have contracted the virus in Orange County.

The Orange County Mosquito Vector Control District had planned the pesticide spraying from planes to attack hard-to-reach spots on the ground where the insects breed, according to agency spokesman Jared Dever. Agency officials checked with their aircraft contractor -- the mosquito-control firm Clarke -- “multiple times” since a pact with the company was signed in March.

“We were given confident statements that those (permits) had been secured and there would be no issue,” Dever said.

A check last night for the proper permits, which is routine, showed the company did not have permission to spray in a zone over Anaheim, Dever said. Last-ditch efforts last night to get clearance to fly and spray the pesticide through local air traffic controllers was denied, Clarke spokeswoman Laura McGowan said.

Dynamic Aviation, hired by Clarke, was supposed to spray last night and tonight over Orange, Tustin, Villa Park and parts of Anaheim, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove, Santa Ana and Stanton.

Obtaining the permits is a “moving target” based on availability of pilots and which aircraft is going to be used, McGowan said. It also is affected by the zone to be covered and traffic from other planes, McGowan said.

That means company officials cannot just schedule a flight in a specific area weeks or months in advance and then take to the air at a set time, McGowan explained.

“You can’t just draw a big circle and say we’re going to do something at this time,” McGowan said. “We were very disappointed not to fulfill the operation.”

McGowan said the permitting process was complicated by the Labor Day holiday, and she insisted the problem with obtaining the permission here was atypical.

Obtaining a permit for restricted airspace can take up to five business days, and, if granted, the agency would have to go through another bureaucratic process of notifying the affected municipalities, Dever said. That could be complicated by requests for more lead time from the public as some residents have complained of concerns about the pesticide’s safety.

Vector Control officials now plan to step up efforts on the ground to spray areas in north Orange County where the presence of West Nile virus cases is highest, Dever said.

“We have an abundance of mosquitoes in this target area. It’s up 250 percent over the five-year average,” Dever said.

Half of the mosquitoes are testing positive for the virus, Dever said. As of Aug. 27, there have been five human cases of the virus from the cities of Anaheim, Orange, Garden Grove, Newport Beach and Tustin.

The agency has done as much as it can to spray public areas, but lack of access to other fertile breeding grounds in backyards has complicated the campaign against the virus, Dever said.

“The vast majority of breeding is occurring in residents’ backyards, places we simply can’t get to,” Dever said. “So we’re asking the public to spend two minutes to walk around their property, dump any standing water and secure your screens.”

Yesterday’s downpour filled up a lot of standing water reservoirs that had been drained in the heat wave, Dever said.

The pesticide does not pose any risk to humans, Dever said.

“It’s regulated by many federal, state and regulatory bodies,” he said.

During last year’s epidemic about 80 percent of mosquitoes were testing positive for West Nile virus, Dever said.

Last year, there were 280 cases of Orange County residents contracting the virus and nine died, Dever said. So far this year, there have been 11 cases with no deaths.

City News Service