Meth Labs Pose Cleanup Dilemma Law Enforcement Seeks Help Disposing Of Toxic Substances
The growing number of methamphetamine labs being found in Idaho has the state Department of Law Enforcement looking for help cleaning up hazardous chemicals used in making the drug.
Talks have started with the state Division of Environmental Quality about possibly assuming authority for disposal of the toxic and cancercausing witch’s brew concocted by drug traffickers looking for a quick buck.
“The bottom line is we’re police officers. We’re not experts in these environmental hazards, and we need help in determining if there’s a problem out there that we’re leaving behind,” said Ed Rankin, special agent in charge of Law Enforcement’s Criminal Investigation Bureau.
“These meth cooks, I don’t believe they’re too concerned about the environment and where they dump their waste. That’s a problem that’s going to have to be addressed.”
And the problem is getting bigger.
Through Dec. 10 there had been 37 meth labs busted throughout Idaho. That compares with 23 last year and only three in 1994. Crime is often a way of life for users of the cheap powdered substance that gives a long-lasting high - and causes paranoid, often violent behavior - making methamphetamine the most serious drug problem facing Idaho.
Last April in Post Falls, drug enforcement agents dismantled an inactive meth lab with enough raw materials to make 2 pounds of the drug. Although no injuries were reported in that incident, two people died in Hauser Lake in 1989 from meth lab fumes.
Bills from the private contractors who actually clean up the chemicals were not yet in from the four most recent busts in Boise and the Pocatello area, but the first 33 cost law enforcement $53,000. So far, the department has only used money forfeited by drug traffickers to pay for the work.
“That well is not bottomless,” said Rankin, who coordinates the agency’s clandestine drug lab program. “With this number of labs, we’re quickly going through the allotted funds.”
Most of the labs discovered in Idaho have been makeshift operations costing an average of more than $1,500 to clean up. And then there is another $250 to $300 to replace such equipment as protective suits, gloves and respirator cartridges after each lab.
“The fortunate thing is the statistics show the majority of these situations have been smaller types of busts. They’re not talking about really big volumes of chemicals,” said David Pisarski, chief of the Division of Environmental Quality’s Compliance Assurance Bureau.
“But we’re concerned, just like law enforcement, and we want to get our hand in there to recognize the problem first and then address it with our available resources.”
Pisarski said the possibilities could include federal funding or some type of joint arrangement between his agency and law enforcement.
Since 1989 law enforcement has had primary responsibility for assessing drug labs and paying to clean them up. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration provided the initial training, and Idaho now has 24 people trained to gather evidence at the labs.
“We set up the program knowing that local law enforcement wouldn’t have the budgets to do this, and we felt the responsibility may rest better on the Department of Law Enforcement,” Rankin said. “Many of these cleanup costs would break the bank of some smaller agencies.”
That’s especially true as labs become more numerous and investigators get better at finding them. In recent years meth cooks who had been operating primarily in California, Oregon and Washington have been setting up shop in more rural states.
“People who deal in meth, they like to get out of the way of the communities with more sophisticated law enforcement agencies,” Ada County Sheriff Vaughn Killeen said. “You can rent a house out anywhere and put a meth lab in it, make a ton of money and then just move.”
Cooks also have learned shortcuts in what has become a relatively simple, inexpensive manufacturing process. They have found substitutes for chemical ingredients that officials have made more difficult to get, so a drug market once controlled largely by outlaw motorcycle gangs now reaches into all levels of society.
xxxx IDAHO LABS Here is a look at the problem of methamphetamine labs in Idaho. How many: Thirty-seven labs had been discovered in 1996 through Dec. 10, compared with 23 in 1995 and three in 1994. Where: Of this year’s busts, 15 each were in southwestern Idaho, including Boise, and southeastern Idaho, including Pocatello. There also were two each in north-central Idaho, the Magic Valley and the Upper Snake River Valley, and one in Post Falls. How much: Cleaning up the first 33 labs cost the Department of Law Enforcement about $53,000 from money forfeited by drug traffickers. That does not include overtime and other personnel costs, plus an estimated $250 to $300 to replace such equipment as protective suits, gloves and respirator cartridges after each job. The most expensive cleanup cost $9,400.