INCINERATOR FOR DRUGS NEEDED IN THE VALLEY

Fighting the Illicit Drug Trade Is an Expensive and Dangerous
Business for Law Enforcement Agencies.

Last year, 1,077 tons of marijuana, 26 tons of cocaine, 715 pounds
of heroin and 3.2 tons of methamphetamine were seized along the
southwest border with Mexico, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration reported.

That's a lot of illegal drugs, and disposing of them isn't cheap.

Three main incinerators are used in Texas. All are privately owned.
One is in Dallas, another in Northeast Texas near the Louisiana
border and a third in El Paso.

That means law enforcement agencies from across the state must make
long trips to destroy confiscated drugs.

The Associated Press reports that for some law enforcement agencies
in the Rio Grande Valley, trips to the incinerators can take several
officers in a caravan of vehicles two days and easily cost $8,000 to $10,000.

The state should remedy this problem by building a publicly operated
incinerator closer to the Rio Grande Valley.

A new incinerator would be expensive, but hauling drugs across the
state is not cost-effective.

It would cost an estimated $5 million to build a facility that meets
the requirements of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The TCEQ requires that incinerators used to destroy illegal drugs
burn at a minimum of 1,400 degrees, have dual chambers and include
stacks that rise six feet over any other structure located within
150 feet, the AP noted.

Regulations also limit the amount of drugs that can be incinerated
during a given time period.

Law enforcement officials are now paying 40 cents to 50 cents a
pound for the destruction of illicit drugs, on top of the
transportation costs.

That's not small change considering routine busts along the border
often yield several hundred pounds of narcotics and illicit weed.

Testimony about the incinerator problem surprised state Sen. John
Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, and
committee members during a field hearing in the Rio Grande Valley this summer.

Now that the committee is aware of the problem, it needs to act.

An incinerator in the Rio Grande Valley would cut costs to local law
enforcement officials and reduce the loss of man-hours the current
cross-state drives require.