CLEANING UP ILLICIT LAB SITES HAS BECOME LUCRATIVE INDUSTRY

Methamphetamine labs are a growth industry in Utah.

At any given time, the state rates between second and fourth nationwide in
the total number of meth labs, and first in the number per capita, said Don
Mendrala of the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The proliferation of illegal labs keeps police agencies increasingly busy.
But it also has opened new avenues of business for hazardous-waste cleanup
companies. Every time a meth lab gets busted in a house, hotel, motel,
apartment or storage locker, someone pays to have it cleaned up because the
process of making the drug creates toxic chemicals.

In that regard, business is good, said Rob Yarosik of Chemical Waste
Management, the company that holds the contract to clean up Utah meth labs
after the DEA busts them.

"When we started in October 1997, we were probably doing two to three a
week," Yarosik said.

Now, it's almost one a day. from October 1997 to October 1998, Chemical
Waste took calls from the DEA on 191 labs. Since last October, it already
has answered 191 calls. Chemical Waste came to Utah because of the meth
contract, so almost all of its business in the state is cleaning meth labs.

After cleaning a lab, workers package the chemicals according to U.S.
Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency
regulations, then ship them to a hazardous-waste incinerator in Illinois.
Other materials used to make meth -- stoves, tubing, pots -- go to a
special landfill in California.

Utah meth labs, for the most part, are small operations with the average
cost of cleanup ranging from $2,000 to $3,000, although some cost less.
Occasionally, a larger lab costs $5,000 to clean up, but those are rare,
Yarosik said.

Bigger labs can cost up to $20,000 to clean. Ron Samford expanded his West
Jordan business, Rocky Mountain Asbestos Abatement, to include cleanup of
meth contaminants in February 1998. He goes into houses or other places
where a meth lab has been dismantled and gets rid of the residue from
cooking the drug.

Utah has no regulations regarding the cleanup of hazardous waste or toxic
chemicals created when people cook methamphetamine, said Pat Knell of the
Salt Lake County Health Department.

The county oversees cleanup of meth labs by enforcing housing regulations,
Knell said. But it's still somewhat new territory for county regulators.
The county can close a house or other building that contained a meth lab. A
company can clean the house, but there's no definitive way to determine
whether hazardous wastes or contaminants have been removed, Knell said. "Is
wiping a wall good enough?" she said. "Or does the wall have to come down."
Knell relies on the expertise of cleanup companies.

The state someday may draft regulations regarding meth lab cleanup. But for
now, the county remains on its own.

Knell said she does not know of other states where local health departments
are overseeing cleanup of meth labs.

When Samford sends his workers to clean the site of a former meth lab a
main concern -- given the lifestyle of some who make meth -- is protecting
them against hepatitis or HIV, which causes AIDS.

"These people have pretty wild sex," he said. "We find a lot of videos."
Most meth labs are set up in homes. But motels, hotels and extended-stay
inns are targets, too.

A maid at the Comfort Inn Suites in Sandy discovered that late last year
when she walked into a room that did not look right.

There were too many people in the room. There was too much stuff, manager
Steve Moss said.

"She just knew something was wrong," Moss said. Hotel staff called the
police and although it was not a working meth lab, it appeared the guests
were setting up one, Moss said. The occupants were supposed to check out
that morning and apparently were going to move into an extended-stay inn.

Instead, they went to jail. Sandy has no more of a problem with meth labs
than any other part of the valley, and it may have less, Mendrala said. But
when the Sandy Police Department held two classes to teach hotel and motel
workers how to spot the signs of people who set up meth labs, they were
well-attended. The hospitality industry in general is more scrutinizing of
guests now. When people pay cash, more hotels and motels require photo
identification and a credit card. And even if guests do not want maid
service, they get it every other day. "It's become pretty standard practice
in the hotel business," said Moss, of Comfort Inn Suites.