ILLEGAL METH LABS MUSHROOM IN STATE
TOXIC-WASTE CLEANUP RESOURCES STRAINED

Moon-suited toxic-waste workers who clean up methamphetamine
laboratories are learning firsthand that illegal drug labs are a
growing problem in Washington.

"I'd say we now clean up one meth lab in this state every working
day," said Steve Hunter, the state Department of Ecology's spill-
response supervisor.

"The slope of the growth curve gives one pause," he said yesterday
after his agency released figures for the meth labs cleaned up last
year.

With no increases in funding or staff, Ecology cleaned up a record 349
labs last year, a 72 percent increase over the 203 labs it handled the
year before and a whopping 869 percent increase over the 36 processed
in 1994.

The department has been in charge of cleaning up the illegal "crank"
labs for more than a decade. Meth is a powerful and addictive
stimulative drug that gives users a feeling of euphoria. Chronic
users often become paranoid and violent, authorities say.

"They're finding more and more of these labs, and we're cleaning up
more and more," said Hunter, whose toxic-waste workers are summoned by
police to the labs in locations ranging from apartments and homes to
motel rooms, shacks in the woods and even motor vehicles.

Methamphetamine is made with several toxic and dangerous chemicals,
including sulfuric and hydrochloric acids, sodium hydroxide, red
phosphorous, heavy metals like lithium, and ammonia gases. Some of
these substances can cause severe injury or death if inhaled or touched.

Others can explode if heated, mixed with water or exposed to air, said
Joe Stohr, who manages Ecology's spill-cleanup program.

Most of the chemicals taken from the labs are disposed of at the
toxic- and hazardous-waste section of the Thurston County landfill,
Hunter said.

The increased workload is straining Ecology's spill-response
budget.

The agency has about $1 million a year for responding to small spills
of toxic and hazardous substances, including the messes created at
meth labs.

But the lab cleanups are taking a growing percentage of the budget -
about 25 percent last year, Hunter said.

"I'm concerned we may be called to respond to simultaneous oil and
drug-lab cleanups and there may be no money in the bank to hire a
contractor to help out," Stohr said.

The department has requested enough money - about $50,000 a year - to
hire one more worker for the cleanup program, Hunter said.

"We may have been too modest in our request," he said.

Gov. Gary Locke is well aware of the growth of meth labs in
Washington, but this year he wants additional resources not for
cleanup but for detection and prosecution of meth makers.

Locke has asked the Legislature for $1.5 million to create a
Methamphetamine Response Team within the Washington State Patrol.

The team would investigate and arrest meth-makers, execute search
warrants and secure labs sites and evidence, he said.