CLEANUP OF DRUG LABS TARGETED

Assembly: Measure Would Help Innocent Property Owners Recoup Costs.

It's been about a year since Assemblyman Peter Frusetta discovered an
illegal drug lab had been set up in an abandoned cabin on his family's ranch
in Fresno County.

He responded at first by issuing warnings for owners to keep a closer eye on
their property. Now he's pushing legislation through the Assembly to try to
get financial reimbursement for property owners stuck with a cleanup bill
for toxic chemicals left behind by criminal operations.

The legislation would allow an innocent property owner to sue for assets the
government seized from the operations.

Frusetta, R-Hollister, has shepherded the bill, AB 1169, through two
committee hearings so far, said Devin Brown, his chief of staff.

``We found out there are a couple of thousand of these found every year, and
the cleanup can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on
the chemicals used,'' he said.

The average cleanup bill for such a lab is $100,000, said Donna Earnest, a
legislative assistant on the assemblyman's staff.

The Justice Department has been encouraging owners to pay closer attention
to their properties so criminal operations can't get established, said Paul
Willmore, a special agent in the Fresno office of the state Department of
Justice's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

Many of the 2,000 illegal drug labs found in California last year were on
remote property that had been rented with six months paid in advance, or
purchased with down payments with large balloon payments due later, he said.

In many cases, the property owners didn't know anything was amiss until they
went looking for overdue payments and found toxic waste dumps remaining from
illegal drug operations, Willmore said.

Under the proposed legislation, a property owner could recover the costs of
cleanup if he or she clearly wasn't involved in the operation, suspects are
arrested and convicted, and assets of value are seized.

But such circumstances are increasingly rare, said Willmore. Seizures of
property from illegal drug manufacturers are no longer automatic, he said.

``We used to seize vehicles being used to transport drugs and we found we
were having to pay more to clean up the vehicles and get rid of the toxic
waste than we could get for them,'' Willmore said.

Police agencies have to decide with every drug lab bust now whether they
want to seize contaminated property, he said.

``When we look for somebody to pin the tail on the donkey, who's it going to
be but the property owner?'' Willmore asked.

Frusetta's staff said they didn't know if the assemblyman got stuck with his
own cleanup bill, but suspected he would.

``The property owner always does,'' Brown said.