ECOLOGY OKS BURNING OF ILLEGAL DRUGS

Law enforcement agencies can start whittling down their mounting piles
of methamphetamine, cocaine and other controlled substances.

The state Department of Ecology decided Friday to allow agencies to
have seized drugs incinerated. The change in rules came after the
department received word from Oregon that Washington's waste isn't
welcome at a Salem-area incinerator.

The trouble cropped up in June when the Spokane Regional Waste Energy
Incinerator stopped accepting narcotics after learning they are
considered hazardous waste, which the plant isn't permitted to burn.
Spokane, the only incinerator in the state that handled illegal
narcotics, had accepted them on the assumption they weren't hazardous.

That changed when researchers at Washington State University
investigated narcotics and Ecology's rules and concluded the narcotics
should be treated as hazardous waste. Ecology agreed, leaving law
enforcement agencies with no way to dispose of the drugs they collect.

Caitlin Cormier, an Ecology spokeswoman, said her agency couldn't
change the rules as long as there was a reasonable treatment option,
and for months it appeared there was one in the form of a waste energy
plant operated by Covanta Corp. near Salem in Western Oregon.

Thursday, Covanta sent word it wouldn't take the Washington
waste.

With no option left, Ecology filed an emergency rule revision to
exempt narcotics from the normal hazardous waste handling procedures.
The order, which took effect Friday, says narcotics may be incinerated
at permitted facilities, namely Spokane.

Cormier said law enforcement agencies operate under strict guidelines
when it comes to disposing of the illegal drugs seized in the course
of business. Narcotics must be destroyed in the presence of a witness,
she said.

The massive furnace in Spokane operates at about 2,500 degrees
Fahrenheit.

Ecology is working on making the rule change permanent, a process that
will take several months, Cormier said.

Mid-Columbia law enforcement agencies complained that the lack of a
way to dispose of narcotics could create a problem with mounting piles
of methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, heroin and cocaine.

Friday, Benton County Sheriff Larry Taylor said he would have to
review the rule change but said there wasn't an immediate problem.

"We're not bursting at the seams," he said.