METH LAB'S RESIDUE CASTS PALL

Smyrna Neighbors Fear Possible Contamination Don Plummer

The tidy back yard of Rachel Atwood's home in Smyrna is on the front
lines of America's war on drugs.

The widow, who has lived in the quiet neighborhood for 41 years, finds
herself across a chain-link fence from the first methamphetamine
"super lab" discovered in the Southeastern United States.

"It's the last thing I'd have thought about," Atwood said. She now
worries that chemicals left behind may harm her children, six
grandchildren or seven great-grandchildren who swim in her pool.

Since the lab was busted by federal agents Feb. 9, soil samples have
been taken from the yard and surrounding homes. Sewer lines have been
flushed all the way to a pumping station, and a red warning sign is
posted on the front door.

But even though agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
have removed the drugs, manufacturing supplies and ingredients used to
make methamphetamine, there is still plenty to do --- and uncertainty
among neighbors.

Tests of soil samples are incomplete, and the homeowner could be
forced to remove the soil, if it's contaminated, as well as anything
else, such as plumbing fixtures and pipes used to dispose of the toxic
waste. If the homeowner fails to clean it up, the job would fall to
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which then would bill the
property owner.

That could take years. In the meantime, neighbors are left to wonder
and worry.

Don't eat the apples

Lynn Zinn, who lives next door to the house where the lab was
operating, said she's thankful that the fumes didn't explode. "We have
a grandson who stays with us," she said.

A DEA agent told Zinn that someone would be back to test the ground
for contamination. "But so far I've not seen anybody," she said. "If
they've been by, they've not made themselves evident."

Federal officials say they have notified the owner of the house and
the Cobb County Health Department, and a warning to potential
purchasers will be placed on property records, said DEA spokeswoman
Ruth Porter-Whipple.

Real estate agent Myra Quintero and her husband, Goncalo Quintero, a
building contractor, own the house. The couple, who live in
Alpharetta, rented the house in October to the three men who were
arrested in the meth bust, Myra Quintero said, after a credit check
run on the wife of one of the men came back clean.

Quintero said her husband was at the house Monday, cleaning up the
drug residue.

"I was real mad about it," she said. "I still am. I don't want people
to leave stuff like that in my house." She said she now wants to sell
the house rather than find new tenants.

Tammy Atwood, who lives in her mother's house adjacent to the lab
site, said she was visited by federal agents shortly after the bust.

"They told my brother we shouldn't eat the apples from our tree this
spring," she said. "It's scary. You wonder what else might be over
there."

'Complete disregard'

David Nahmias, the U.S. attorney for North Georgia, said he is
concerned that the lab was found in a residential neighborhood. Older
homes in the area are interspersed with new ones selling for upward of
$400,000.

"That this lab is set up in a residential neighborhood shows the
complete disregard these people have for other lives," Nahmias said.

In addition to pseudoephedrine, the cold medicine used to produce
meth, the process requires toxic materials that include acetone, ethyl
alcohol, Freon, ammonia, iodine and acids, according to federal
officials. Many of those substances can cause cancer and, in
combination, may cause respiratory problems and possibly birth
defects, according to a federal Web site on drug abuse.

Large meth labs also pose huge risks when they are being operated, DEA
officials said. When the highly flammable materials that are used
explode, they explode big.

In 2002, a hotel in North Dakota was destroyed following the explosion
of a meth lab being operated in one of its rooms. In 2003, a fire at a
warehouse near Sacramento, Calif., following the explosion of a meth
lab continued to burn for more than 24 hours.

If a lab the size of the one found in Smyrna had exploded, it could
have destroyed houses more than a block away, Nahmias said.

After a super lab is shut down, cleanup work can take months, and
costs can run in the tens of thousands of dollars. Federal officials
said that the house on Church Road still may be dangerous but that
they are not responsible for the final cleanup.

"We have finished our work at the laboratory site and turned it back
to the owner," said Porter-Whipple of the DEA. Contamination from
toxic fumes that may permeate the structure and hazardous waste dumped
out the back door are the property owner's responsibility, she said.

240,000 pills in trash

The operation at the Church Road house was a "super lab" because it
could manufacture more than 10 pounds of methamphetamine a day, said
Sherri Strange, Atlanta's top DEA agent. The Smyrna lab also converted
meth into its more pure, and addictive, crystallized form called
"ice," she said.

Previously, such large-scale labs have been found almost exclusively
in California and Mexico, said Nahmias, the U.S. attorney.

DEA agents found about 1 pound of ice in a car when they arrested
three Mexican nationals at the scene. All three are charged with
possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.

In total, agents seized 11 pounds of ice, 39 pounds of methamphetamine
and several 30- to 55-gallon containers that held liquid
methamphetamine in various stages of processing. Containers of that
size can yield about 10 to 15 pounds of ice.

Agents also discovered 24 large trash bags full of empty packages of
pseudoephedrine that had contained more than 240,000 pills.

Cocaine 'times 10'

Meth, which Strange calls "coke times 10," has been an increasing
problem for law enforcement in the past decade. From 1992 to 2004, the
number of clandestine meth lab cleanups nationally increased from 394
to nearly 17,000, according to the DEA. For the fiscal year ending
Sept. 30, the DEA counted more than 16,800 methamphetamine-related
seizures by law enforcement across the country, up from 15,300 in 2002.

The drug began gaining a real foothold in Georgia in the early 1990s.
Since then, meth seizures and lab busts have increased every year.

The finished product sells for up to $250 for an "eight-ball"
containing one-eighth of an ounce.

Within minutes of taking the drug, users experience a rush of energy
and a sense of well-being that can last up to 12 hours. But when it
wears off, they are left with feelings of deep depression and paranoia
that can make them desperate for another dose.

Nahmias likens the increase of methamphetamine in Georgia to a rising
tide that may overwhelm communities as cocaine did in the 1980s.

"There are lots of places in the country, like California, where it's
already too late," he said. "Here in Georgia, there's still some hope
we can ward it off. It's still going to be a problem, but we're where
we can be in control rather than be underwater trying to find our way
to the surface."

Staff writers Henry Farber and Jill Young Miller and staff
researcher Sharon Gaus contributed to this article.
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