METHAMPHETAMINES' MARK ON EX-LABS HARD TO ERASE

SALT LAKE CITY -- (Associated Press) Once police shut down a
methamphetamine lab, haul away the chemicals and lock up the suspects, a
final concern lingers.

The acids, solvents and other chemicals used to manufacture the drug may
still penetrate walls, appliances and carpets, and they may pose a danger
to anyone who moves into the place afterward.

But Utah, like many other states, has no standards for cleaning up former
meth labs. The state has no certification system for private companies that
decontaminate the labs, and health officials have no data to accurately
assess the health risk posed by residual meth-making waste.

"There's a lot of uncertainty," said Kent Grey, director of environmental
remediation and response for the Utah Department of Environmental Quality.
"How clean is clean?"

For Lisa Stong, the answer was "not clean enough."

Stong unwittingly rented a Riverton house to a methamphetamine cook, who
used common decongestant tablets along with chemicals such as iodine, red
phosphorous, freon and lye to make the powerful stimulant. The abrasive mix
left stains and contamination throughout the house and garage.

The federal Drug Enforcement Agency shut down the lab last May.

Since then, cleaning up the place has been a nightmare, Stong said.

There currently is no written policy on cleanup, but when the Salt Lake
Valley Health Department learns of a meth lab, health officials close the
property, said Kevin Okleberry of the environmental health department in
Salt Lake County.

The health department distributes a list of local cleanup contractors and
property owners must hire one of the contractors or clean the property
themselves before health officials will allow anyone to move back in, he said.

Stong hired one of the companies on the list, Rocky Mountain Asbestos
Abatement, and agreed to pay $1,800 for the work. But she said the cleanup
amounted to nothing more than spraying the house with a paint injected with
decontamination solution.

When health inspectors returned, the house failed.

"They came out and said they would not pass it. She said she could still
smell the chemicals," Stong said.

The problem, said Ron Samford, owner of Rocky Mountain Asbestos Abatement,
is that Stong's house needed a much more thorough decontamination, and
Stong didn't want to pay the $3,500 price tag.

Stained countertops, sinks and appliances usually are torn out and thrown
away. The carpet almost always needs to be replaced, and heating and air
conditioning ducts have to be scrubbed, Samford said.

"There's no way it's going to pass with that stuff in there," Samford said.

Samford also hauls contaminated materials to a hazardous waste site and
uses chemical tests to assure a property is clean before seeking a health
department inspection, he said.

But nothing in Utah law or county health regulations requires him to do so.

"Right now, there is no licensing program and there are no standards for
the state of Utah," said Dennis Downs, director of the state solid and
hazardous waste control board.

A policy being considered by the Salt Lake Valley Health Department would
set official cleanup standards.

The unwritten policy currently followed by Salt Lake County health
officials has some holes in it, a decontamination expert said.

"They really don't have procedures that they follow. They don't go to every
lab. It's really up to the inspector," said Mike Rowzee, owner of Certified
Decontamination. "There are places that were not decontaminated correctly,
or they were not closed" to occupancy.

The proposal in Salt Lake County would add legal teeth to the procedure
that health officials now follow, Okleberry said.

The need for cleanup guidelines has grown as methamphetamine has proliferated.

For the DEA, meth has become the top law enforcement priority in Utah, said
Barry Jamison, an agency spokesman. The DEA pays for the initial cleanup of
meth labs, hauling off the bulk chemicals and equipment used in the
"cooking" process, he said.

In 1997, the DEA cleaned up 129 labs in Utah. By 1999, the number had grown
to 266. The number leveled off in 2000, at 210, but at about $3,000 each,
cleaning up the labs is costly, he said.

The danger from contaminants that still lurk in former meth labs may not
reveal itself for many years, Samford said. For example, children who rub
their hands on a wall contaminated with iodine or phosphorous and then lick
their hands would not likely get sick right away, but kidney or liver
damage could show up later.