BUSINESSES HIT HARD BY METH TESTING

While the health and environmental dangers posed by methamphetamine
labs are well known, health experts are just starting to realize the
mounting problems with heavy meth use contaminating homes and cars,
possibly putting unsuspecting people at risk.

On North Whidbey, a few business people are learning the high cost of
cleaning up after methamphetamine smoke.

The owner of a used car lot will likely have to pay for testing of
dozens of vehicles. Those cars that test positive for meth will either
have to be cleaned by a certified company or simply disposed of.
Unfortunately, a high-tech gadget that may have saved the owner
thousands of dollars in testing didn't work right.

Oak Harbor business people own a mobile home on North Whidbey that
will be destroyed because of suspected meth contamination caused by
renters. Across the road, a lot is empty after Wells Fargo foreclosed
on the owner, then ended up having to completely demolish and haul
away two meth-contaminated mobile homes.

"This has cost the corporation thousands and thousands of dollars,"
said Oak Harbor Realtor Pete Rivera, who is dealing with the property
for the bank. "Wells Fargo is taking a bath on this one."

Marie Piper, an environmental health specialist with the Island County
Health Department, is in charge of testing for the dangerous drug at
suspected sites. She said enclosed spaces, such as cars and houses,
can become contaminated from meth labs or meth smoking, or as is often
the case, both. The substance is sticky and difficult to remove, which
makes the clean-up process expensive.

While health experts agree that meth exposure is a health risk, Piper
said there is no consensus on what level of contamination is safe. The
state standard is 0.1 micrograms per 100 centimeters squared.

Piper temporarily shut down O&J Sales, a car lot on Goldie Road, early
last month after tests showed extreme levels of meth contamination in
the office building, as well as lower levels in several cars. The
building tested at 5,200 times the standard.

Health officials tested the dealership after the manager, Nolan Brown,
was arrested and charged with possession of meth.

Piper said she hoped to save the owner, Mark Brown, money in the
expensive testing by bringing in CDEX Inc., an Arizona company that
makes a meth-testing scanner device. But Piper said the scanner
apparently didn't work properly. It showed meth was present in 14 of
the cars on the site. To check the results, the health department also
swabbed the cars and sent the samples to a lab for testing. The
results showed that only five of the samples were positive.

"Now we don't know if the negatives were really negatives," Piper
said, explaining that dozens of cars will have to be tested the
expensive way. "The scanner would have saved the owner a lot of
money." Last month, Mark Brown explained that he started the car
business to help his troubled son. Nolan was doing a great job until
meth got the best of him, Brown said.

Now the cost of cleaning and testing may spell the end of the
lot.

"It may cost us the business," he said. "It's a tremendous
cost."

In addition, Piper said she'll contact three people who brought in the
cars they purchased at the lot for testing and tell them the results
weren't reliable.

On Stellar Lane on North Whidbey, a meth-related neighborhood
nightmare is almost over. The saga began last summer when Wells Fargo
foreclosed on a woman's home. She, her ailing mother and her boyfriend
moved to an adjacent wooded lot, where they lived in a tiny camping
trailer.

After a few weeks, the family moved into a trailer home across the
street. Earlier this year, they were evicted from the home.

Piper said she caught wind of the situation last year and required
Wells Fargo to test the home for meth. The tests came back "hot," she
said, so the bank was forced to do a costly clean up. Workers crushed
all the structures on site and carted them away. Rivera said some of
the dirt even had to be removed.

"It was thousands of dollars in just testing," he said. He admits to
being frustrated with the continued testing, but he said the bank will
do what it takes to make the Health Department happy.

For now, the lot is completely vacant and the adjacent woods have been
cleaned out. But the property across the street is a different matter.

Piper said the owners of the single-wide trailer decided not to do the
expensive testing, but the clean-up is being run as if it is a
contaminated site. The home will be demolished.

Piper said the home was so stuffed with junk that it would have been
difficult to find a surface to test.

Last week, crews started cleaning up the yard surrounding the mobile
home. An excavator piled junk in giant piles and moved a number of
broken cars hidden beneath the trash.