LANDLORDS STUCK WITH METH-CLEANUP BILLS

CLINTON, Tenn. - Clifton Moneymaker never imagined his tenants would turn
his four-bedroom mobile home into a hazardous waste site.

"We had never heard of meth labs," said Moneymaker, a 76-year-old retiree
who relies on the $500 a month he got from renting the trailer in east
Tennessee.

Many rural property owners like Moneymaker are getting stuck with cleanups
and liability after government-paid contractors remove the contaminated
hardware and utensils used to cook the addictive stimulant. Owners of the
affected property bear the costs of tearing out and cleaning carpets,
floors, walls and ceilings saturated with chemical and acid vapors.

Even worse, federal environmental officials say they don't typically monitor
meth-contaminated properties after the initial cleanup, and state agencies
have no rules for follow-up inspections to make sure properties are safe for
the next tenant.

McMinn County sheriff's Lt. Billy Farmer said there is no federal or state
law that says property owners have to notify anyone about a previous
methamphetamine contamination.

Moneymaker's tenants were arrested last fall for cooking the addictive
stimulant. The couple lost custody of their three children, and agents
marked the property with hazardous substance posters.

But Moneymaker said no one would tell him what he had to do to rent the
property again.

In November, he agreed to let a couple live in the trailer rent-free while
cleaning it.

The couple, who asked not to be identified, continues to live there with a
young child.

Dean Mayberry, a real estate broker in Putnam County, said he spent tens of
thousands of dollars repairing and cleaning a rental house after agents
arrested the tenant in a meth lab raid.

"We had to tear it plumb down to the two-by-fours, had to replace the
insulation and the plumbing - the faucets had been burned by the acid,"
Mayberry said. "I finally sold it for $70,000, and I didn't make any money."

In McMinn County, agents have twice arrested customers cooking meth at a
motel off Interstate 75. The motel owner declined requests for an interview
about if, or how, he cleaned the rooms.

In some communities, notices of the contamination are attached to deeds but
not everywhere. Nadean Cunningham, register of deeds in McMinn County, said
she didn't know anything about contamination notices.

The recipe for meth can include ephedrine and pseudoephedrine from cold
tablets, red phosphorous from matchbook strike plates, ether from engine
starter, Red Devil lye, iodine and sulfuric acid from drain cleaner.

Exposure to the vapors and residue can cause respiratory problems, headaches
and nausea.

Nationwide, government-paid contractors cleaned up meth-cooking rigs at more
than 7,700 locations in 2003. Tennessee had 1,083 cleanups - more than any
other state.

U.S. taxpayers spent more than $37 million on meth lab cleanups in
2002-2003.

Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne said the costs and
liability questions for property owners are part of the drug's "ripple
effect."

"There is the human cost, what it does to children of meth abusers and what
it does to real estate values in neighborhoods ... whether in Tennessee or
Missouri or anywhere else."

Ed Childress, a DEA special agent in Washington, said the Environmental
Protection Agency has "generalized widespread standards" for cleanups of
meth-contaminated property "but underneath it can become more complex."

"It is a very murky situation," he said.

Childress said property owners can be required to pay for removal of several
feet of topsoil at a location where people making meth poured out the
chemicals.

After the lab is removed "what is left over is a contaminated site,"
Childress said. "In every situation we send letters to the local government
and health department and EPA."

He said an owner who "does not decontaminate that property, they could be
found liable for passing on down a contaminated property."

Don Rigger, chief of emergency response for EPA's Atlanta-region, said the
agency does not typically monitor cleanups of meth contamination beyond
government-paid contractors removing the containers and chemicals.

EPA employees do very few lab cleanups, which he said can cost as much as
$25,000. Anything else is left to the property owner.

"We are sort of the safety net," Rigger said. "Local and state organizations
ask us for assistance generally ... or a citizen, if they feel like they are
not getting what they want."

Tennessee legislators decided weeks ago that with no extra money available
they weren't sure what to do about meth. Gov. Phil Bredesen has appointed a
task force to make recommendations by Sept. 1.

Rep. Charles Curtiss, a Democrat from Sparta, said he will propose a law to
quarantine all meth labs until they are cleaned up by contractors approved
by the state.

Curtiss said a young couple in Warren County bought a house without knowing
there had been a meth lab inside and "mold started growing out of the walls
and light fixtures.

"Ultimately they had to move. They didn't recover anything," he said.

McMinn County Sheriff Steve Frisbie said his officers send letters to
property owners and health, environmental and property registry agencies
every time they raid a meth lab. Frisbie said he has received calls from
people who want to refurbish meth-contaminated buildings.

"We tell them you enter in at your own risk."