METH DEBRIS NEW CHALLENGE FOR HIGHWAY CLEANUP

SUMMIT COUNTY - The 20,000 volunteers who clean up trash each year
along the state's highways run into an array of interesting items that
people have dumped alongside the roads.

Trash is ubiquitous: fast-food containers and wrappers, cigarette
butts, cardboard boxes and empty soda cans and bottles.

Crews also find such things as rope, dead animals, the debris left
over from car wrecks, tires and furniture.

In Summit County, seven crews help keep Highway 6 clean, 16 groups
work on Highway 9, and 13 others keep Interstate 70 picked up.

Now they've got one more thing for which to keep their eyes open:
waste left over from methamphetamine labs that manufacturers dump or
hide alongside highway shoulders or in culverts and drainages.

Summit County, however, seems to be immune from the problem - for now,
said Sheriff John Minor.

"There's some bizarre stuff on the side of the highway anyway," he
said. "It (meth debris) is very uncommon right now, but there's no
telling what the future will bring."

The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT), which oversees the
16-year-old Adopt-A-Highway program, recently released a video showing
volunteers how to identify and treat suspected meth lab materials.

It is being distributed to 1,800 Adopt-A-Highway groups. Volunteers
patrol about 40 percent of Colorado's 9,000-mile state highway system,
picking up hundreds of tons of trash for disposal.

The eight-minute video explains the drug, including what happens when
people consume it - euphoria - to its downside: paranoia. It depicts
how the drug is manufactured, why it's so prevalent and why it creates
so much waste.

According to CDOT spokesman Bob Wilson, to make an ounce of
methamphetamine, it takes about 400 easily obtained, over-the-counter
cold remedy pills - plus myriad other ingredients. The process of
making the drug is highly dangerous, as the ingredients involved are
explosive.

The drug is cheap, and therefore becoming more prevalent.

In 1998, law enforcement seized 31 crystal methamphetamine labs
statewide. By 2002, that number grew to 687.

And when manufacturers get rid of the byproducts, they often resort to
tossing them on the side of the road, Wilson said.

Adopt-A-Highway volunteers should be aware of their surroundings while
gathering trash. Clues that methamphetamine trash is present include
dying vegetation, a smell of rotten eggs and tools that go into making
the drug.

Those include such things as propane tanks, flasks and measuring cups
- - or worse, the so-called "death bags," trash bags filled with toxic
phosgene gas, a byproduct of methamphetamine production.

"It only takes a few parts per million before you have some lung
issues," Minor said. "A lot of officers have been retired because
they've bumped into a meth lab without adequate protection. Their
lungs are shot. This stuff is deadly."

In Summit County, it's not uncommon for trash crews to find trash bags
dumped along the highways - most of which have either fallen off the
back of a vehicle or were dumped by tourists leaving town.

Highway volunteers are urged to take caution.

"A lot of times it might be more than what you're seeing," Wilson
said. "A measuring cup could be indicative of what might be nearby,
and it could be the remnants of a meth lab. They just need to be aware
that some of these common items are also used for illicit purposes."

If cleanup crews come across something they feel is suspicious, they
are advised to alert their crew leader, who should notify local law
enforcement.