DRUG WASTE FOUND IN CREEK

The Ministry of Environment is assessing whether 30 barrels of
drug-making waste dumped into a Walnut Grove creek did damage to the
fish-bearing waterway on Tuesday morning.

Resident in the area of 102B Avenue and MacKinnon Road, near the Fort
Langley Golf Course, awoke to plastic and metal pails lying in the
nearby creek and red liquid spilling out of some of the lids, said one
neighbour.

There was also bags of chemical powder.

The Langley RCMP called Hazco, a hazardous clean-up company, to come
remove the barrels, many of them full with an unknown liquid.

The pails were likely full of the byproducts of a meth-making lab but
police wouldn't confirm what it was.

Drug lab waste has been dumped in ditches and fields all over Langley
over the past decade.

Any meth-making lab produces a lot of toxic waste that is
discarded.

Among the items used to make crystal meth and ecstasy are methylamine
hydrochloride, iodine and red phosphorus.

If dumped, this can go into waterways.

The liquids are extremely toxic and fatal to wildlife and fish.