WITH ANOTHER round of spraying over the Monterey Peninsula set to begin Oct. 9, Carmel Mayor Sue McCloud said this week she has no health concerns about the pheromones the California Department of Food and Agriculture is using to eradicate the light brown apple moth. But how the state has handled — or hasn’t handled — its public relations is another issue, and McCloud and Assemblyman John Laird hope the CDFA does a better job before the planes return.

“There are all kinds of toxic things out there that are worse than this that we don’t pay attention to,” McCloud said. “My concerns relate to the process by which they did this, not the actual spraying.”

Two weeks ago, low-flying, fixed-wing aircraft blanketed a large portion of the Peninsula with pheromones designed to prevent the Australian moth — which agriculture officials have said is a significant threat — from mating. Over the course of several nights, the planes dropped a substance called CheckMate on Marina, Seaside, Sand City, Monterey, Pacific Grove and Pebble Beach. During their overnight forays, the planes seemingly overflew the entire Monterey Peninsula night after night, because their flight paths included repeated turns over areas that were not being sprayed, including Carmel-by-the-Sea.

“I could hear them clearly down at my house,” said McCloud, who lives at the south end of town and received calls as late as 11:15 p.m. from perturbed residents. “One of the problems was people didn’t understand the grid process and how far they had to fly to turn around.”

McCloud also said she called CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura a week before the spraying and advised him “to climb out of this negative PR hole,” by visiting the Peninsula and subjecting himself to the substance he was telling others is harmless.

“And he did,” McCloud said, at Marina airport.

How not to do it

In a lengthy letter to Kawamura, Laird outlined the worries of his constituents regarding the potential health and environmental effects of the pheromone spray, the methods of distributing it, the research backing the chemical and its effectiveness, and the public process. He sent copies of the Sept. 24 letter to more than 20 state and local government officials, including McCloud.

“I cannot overstate that merely fine-tuning messaging or hosting a few more open house events a week or so before aerial spraying is scheduled will be woefully inadequate to relieve public concern,” Laird wrote. “It is critically important CDFA take immediate and meaningful action to ensure there is a good public process based on sound science going forward, even if it means delaying further aerial spraying.”

Responding by email, McCloud commended Laird for his “excellent letter,” and added, “It is not just the area to be sprayed which is a concern, but people need to know the flight path the planes will take to execute their grid spraying. Many were as disturbed by the low-flying planes as by concern over the spraying itself. When the planes were in areas they were not expected to be in, the residents assumed they were being sprayed, when in fact it was the distance needed to turn and stay on grid!”

She also said the CDFA would have received an A grade for its “program of how not to do something.”

Laird told The Pine Cone his letter sought to convey the range of worries Monterey Peninsula residents shared with him before, during and after the aerial spraying.

“They ran the gamut, but it was good feedback from a lot of people,” he said. “I’m not sure I can recall an issue since I became a legislator that brought more traffic through my office.”

Laird, who was elected to the Assembly five years ago after serving as Mayor of Santa Cruz, said Kawamura responded to his letter by meeting with him for an hour Tuesday evening.

“They really understand their notification procedures and the way to get information out to people is something that can be really improved,” Laird said.

And with the announcement this week the spraying is also set to occur in Santa Cruz County, Laird said the department will have to make an even greater effort to assuage concerns and explain its plans.

“If you think Monterey was a public outcry, you haven’t begun to hear public outcry,” he said. “When I was mayor, there were people arrested at council meetings. Santa Cruz is not a community that takes things lightly.”