THE PRICE OF METH: MANUFACTURING CAN TAINT MORE THAN THE USER

Slipshod chemical handling is a hallmark of methamphetamine
production.

Meth makers produce the drug mostly with common household chemicals,
which are generally safe if used cautiously -- but dangerous when
handled sloppily.

The meth epidemic is not only one of use, but of the increasing
numbers of home labs becoming hazardous waste sites, according to the
Minnesota Department of Health.

The environmental threats so far have not been to the natural
environment and to groundwater but to the current and future occupants
of homes, said Steve Lee, a supervisor for an emergency response team
with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Dumping solvents on the ground is "certainly an insult to Mother
Earth," he said, but this pales in comparison to in-home perils, Lee
said.

In only two cases, on-site wells had "slight contamination" from
solvents, he said. None of the discovered labs so far created
environmental problems for their neighborhoods, Lee said.

"We've realized that the real problem with a meth lab is inside the
house, where there are meth residues on the floor, on the couches and
in the kid's stuffed bunny," he said.

Meth recipes use a variety of household volatile organic compounds,
acids, bases, metals, solvents and salts. Most of these are toxic in
their original forms. Coleman fuel contains hexane. Automotive starter
fluid has ether. Iodine is hazardous if mishandled. At a minimum, 5 to
7 pounds of chemical waste are produced for each pound of meth.

As in many hazardous chemical exposures, children are most susceptible
to health effects. Thirty percent of home meth labs nationwide and 50
percent in Minnesota had children living in them at the time of a
police bust.

Many Minnesota counties have no laws requiring cleanup of a home
contaminated with common household chemicals. Governments don't have
authority to enter a private home and clean it, Lee said.

"Nobody has a jurisdiction over what happens on the inside of
somebody's house," Lee said. "It's unusual for a state pollution
agency to do things inside an individual's home."

The state can order an owner to clean up waste in their yard, he said,
and it has jurisdiction over the indoor environments of hotels,
nursing homes and restaurants, for instance.

So meth busts bring the law to bear on a violator but do little to
make homes safe for people, Lee said. The meth-maker is in jail, and a
new family has moved into a public health hazard. Their children are
crawling around on a toxic carpet.

County health departments have authority to declare any structure a
public health nuisance. This spring, many Minnesota counties are
drafting new ordinances in lockstep with methamphetamine provisions of
a state crime bill expected to pass the Legislature this spring. The
bill would require:

- -The state to form a revolving fund to provide low-interest loans to
counties and cities to clean up lab sites.

- -Real estate brokers and salespeople to disclose information about
contamination to homebuyers.

- -Courts to order meth convicts to pay restitution to property
owners.

- -Police to notify a health department of the presence of hazardous
chemicals, and require counties, health departments or sheriffs to
prohibit people from occupying, renting, selling or using polluted
property until it has been evaluated and cleaned.

- -The term "hazardous waste contaminated vehicle" to be placed on a
vehicle used for meth production.

Winona County in Minnesota has drafted a new ordinance for cleaning up
meth labs and will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. May 25 at the
Winona County Government Center, 177 Main St.

Jill Johnson, the environmental services director for the county,
helped write the ordinance, which she said is nearly a carbon copy of
neighboring Olmsted County's.

Vehicles used as meth labs would be impounded until cleaned, Johnson
said. If estimated cleanup costs exceed 75 percent of the Kelly Blue
Book retail value of the vehicle, the county is authorized to order
disposal of the car instead of allowing it to be cleaned and resold,
Johnson said.

The same goes for a home, using the county assessed market value. If
it can be cleaned up but the property owner can't afford to pay for
cleaning, then the county would pay for cleanup and recover costs
through a special tax assessment on the home, she said. A property's
meth contamination would be recorded on the deed.

"If there is a meth lab found, the home and site would become a public
health nuisance," Johnson said. That would allow the county to pursue
or order cleanup of the home, she said.

The ordinance must be in place for the county to qualify for state
cleanup funds under the pending legislation, Johnson said.

The pollution control agency is cleaning some former meth homes on an
experimental basis with owners' permission, Lee said, using some
"limited funding from the state's Superfund."

Cleanup involves thorough scrubbing, new coats of paint on walls and
removal of carpeting, Lee said.

While most meth ends up being made in low-income rural homes, it would
be a mistake to believe that's the only place where the hazards lie,
Lee said.

Hotel rooms, upscale suburban homes, big luxury boats on the
Mississippi River -- meth makers might even pose as dog sitters, or
break in and use someone else's home for a couple days, Lee said.

But these short-term labs don't pose the health concerns that occur in
home labs where repeated batches have been manufactured over a long
time, Lee said. People present during manufacture obviously are
exposed, but Lee said: "There are many, many more families in former
meth lab properties without knowing it."

"If real estate companies are serious about complying with the
disclosure law, then every transaction will include that disclosure,"
Lee said.

If homebuyers believe they're not getting full disclosure, they should
check with local health departments and police to see if the address
was a location for a meth bust, Lee advised.