HEALTH DISTRICT TO PROVIDE NEWS ON FORMER METH LABS

Shutting down a methamphetamine-making operation can be a high-profile
event, with a large number of police officers and health-district
personnel responding to the property.

But it's not uncommon for people living near meth labs to be unaware
of what is going on, said Cmdr. Pat Slack of the Snohomish Regional
Drug Task Force.

Slack said that because most of these local operations are in rural
areas, typically in unincorporated Snohomish County, they "are easier
to conceal."

But information on former drug houses will become easier for residents
to access in the next several weeks.

Gary Hanada, a section manager of the Snohomish Health District's
environmental-health division, said neighbors and prospective home
buyers who want to learn whether there is a contaminated drug house in
certain neighborhoods will be able to find this type of information on
the district's Web site by the end of next month.

Snohomish Health District

Information on properties contaminated with the chemicals used to make
methamphetamine will be posted on the district's Web site,
www.snohd.org (http://www.snohd.org), by the end of next month.

"(It's) to inform people who are renting or buying places that the
property has been determined contaminated," Hanada said.

The information will be available on the Snohomish Health District's
Web site. The drug-laboratory information, which has not yet been
posted on the site, will have a photo and address of the house, motel
room, vehicle or property deemed contaminated.

Many contaminated properties are already posted on the state
Department of Health's Web site. Listings include addresses and
tax-parcel information.

Hanada said that after a property has been cleaned to meet state
standards, it will be removed from the health district's site.

The state Health Department has a strict mandate on how meth houses
are cleaned. Once a home is cleaned, toxicology tests must determine
that it contains no more than 0.1 microgram of methamphetamine per 100
square centimeters. A microgram is one-millionth of a gram. A packet
of Equal, as a comparison, contains 1 gram of the sugar substitute.

Slack said his office often gets calls from prospective home buyers
who want to know if there has been a meth-making business on a
property. Unless a health officer has deemed the property
uninhabitable, Slack said his office cannot give the caller any
information.

Methamphetamine production continues to plague the county. The
Snohomish Regional Drug Task Force and the Snohomish Health District
have investigated more than 100 meth laboratories over the past two
years. The number does not include the nearly 50 sites where toxic
drug-making chemicals have been dumped.

After identifying a property that has been contaminated with meth, the
Snohomish Health District posts a notice on the property and flags the
title of the home, motel, vehicle or other site. But according to
neighborhood activist Susan York, this often doesn't help notify
neighbors of properties deemed uninhabitable.

"A lot of times they (neighbors) don't know what to look for," said
York, who started an anti-drug group, Lead on America, after fighting
to close a meth house in her Mukilteo neighborhood.