DRUG DISPOSAL OPTIONS UP IN SMOKE

Seizing methamphetamine and other controlled substances such as cocaine and
heroin is one thing. Getting rid of the stuff is another.

What you can't do these days is turn it into ash and smoke.

Because of state Department of Ecology guidelines that apply to destruction
of dangerous substances, law enforcement agencies across Washington have no
place to burn up their street drugs.

That means Benton County Sheriff Larry Taylor has to keep bricks of
cocaine, bundles of marijuana and baggies of heroin and methamphetamine in
the evidence locker until further notice.

"We have a problem, so it just builds up," said Taylor.

It's the same story for Kennewick Police Chief Marc Harden, and for
departments all across the state, from Spokane to Seattle.

The problem began in June when the Spokane Regional Waste Energy
Incinerator stopped accepting narcotics to be burned.

It was the only place in Washington to incinerate illegal drugs that police
agencies need to unload from time to time.

No one questioned the practice for nine years, said Damon Taam, contract
manager for the incinerator.

The gigantic furnace can consume more than 800 tons of material a day with
temperatures reaching 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ecology's trump was triggered last spring when someone at Washington State
University's medical program and hospital had second thoughts about tossing
medical wastes into an incinerator.

The wastes to be destroyed were regulated by the Drug Enforcement
Administration, and university officials were worried about liability, said
Ecology spokeswoman Caitlin Cormier.

"They said, 'Hey, this might be hazardous waste,' " she said.

The second thoughts turned into an official designation of the
nonbiological medical wastes as hazardous.

Such a designation triggers Ecology rules, and that is what led to the
decision in Spokane to no longer accept law enforcement's drug caches for
incineration.

"Ecology requires that incinerators be permitted to handle dangerous
waste," Cormier said. "We have to look at what happens when you burn this
stuff, and what goes into the air."

Although the situation is not critical in police evidence rooms yet, Taylor
said if a solution to the problem is not reached, drugs will pile up.

"If Ecology has these stringent restrictions, it's imperative that Ecology
work with the agencies to help us solve the problem," Taylor said.

Harden said Kennewick's drugs used to go up in smoke at the Kennewick
General Hospital incinerator until July 1997 when the burn box burned
itself up.

"We'd love to be able to get rid of the stuff. The more you have the more
security risk, too," Harden said.

Harden said his department checked with Hanford-area companies for a quick
fix to the problem. "We explored using a plasma fuel cell, but it didn't
work out," he said.

Cormier said a solution may be coming via a Covanta Corp. waste energy
plant near Salem, where negotiations are under way.

Another alternative would be to tweak the Ecology rules.

A memorandum dated Dec. 31 suggested amending "the rule-making procedure,
which would exempt street drugs as a dangerous waste and allow them to be
burned."

Taam, the incinerator contract manager, said the decision to ban street
drugs from Spokane's incinerator has wide-reaching effects because the
waste-energy furnace owned by Spokane was the only place to burn them in
the state for nearly a decade.

"We were getting drugs (to burn) from all over, Seattle and the Tri-
Cities," Taam said. "We did it to help law enforcement."

The charge was $132.75 a ton, with a 140-pound minimum. Taam said the
quantities weren't huge, amounting to the equivalent of about a mini- van
load every month.