STATE GETS $300,000 FOR METH CLEANUP

Federal Grant To Buy Containers For Chemicals

LOUISVILLE - Kentucky is the first state to receive a federal grant that
will improve the way police store confiscated chemicals used to make
methamphetamine.

The Drug Enforcement Administration will allocate $300,000 to the state
starting next month for storage containers that hold up to 220 pounds of
chemicals.

The money will also go to help pay specially trained contractors who will
empty the containers each week, disposing of the chemicals according to
federal guidelines.

Kentucky State Police have had some containers since 1999, and the program
will allow an expansion of that effort.

DEA officials say Kentucky was chosen for the pilot effort because of its
growing methamphetamine problem, which they blame in part on an increase in
"tweaker labs" or "mom and pops," which can brew a batch of the stimulant
in a few hours.

Numbers recorded by the El Paso Intelligence Center, which tracks meth lab
seizures, show that 19 labs were seized throughout Kentucky in 1998 -- a
number that increased to 372 last year.

State law enforcement officials say that number is probably too low. They
estimate that less than half of the labs seized are included in the
center's numbers because many law enforcement agencies don't consistently
report seizures.

As the numbers grow, the state has had trouble getting contract cleanup
companies to respond immediately to the seized labs, said Will Glaspy, a
DEA spokesman in Washington, D.C. As a result, officers have to wait at the
scene -- sometimes for as long as 36 hours -- until it can be cleared.

The new system will allow officers to transport the chemicals in buckets to
the storage containers at the post for pickup.

"We're more or less looking at this as a pilot project," Glaspy said.
"We're going to have to evaluate it to see if it's cost-effective and saves
time. We want to see how it works before it is tried elsewhere."

An 8-by-10-foot container will be stationed at each of the 16 Kentucky
State Police posts in the next several months. There, trained officers can
take properly packed confiscated labs for storage.

Officials with the state police, which initiated the cleanup project on a
smaller scale four years ago, say it will save agencies hundreds of hours
of officers' time and could slash overall cleanup costs for a typical lab
to $500 from an average of $4,000 to $6,000.

Law-enforcement officials from the state police and the local DEA office
met Monday to discuss details of the expanded program, including the
training necessary for officers who will work with the containers.

Officers across the state already have been trained in how to deal with
meth-making chemicals, such as anhydrous ammonia and ether, and household
chemicals such as drain cleaner and starter fluid, which can cause
respiratory and nerve damage.

"The average citizen doesn't realize the toxicity of these chemicals," said
Capt. Mitch Bailey, commander of the state police's western drug
enforcement branch in Bowling Green. "Our concern is with vapors that are
associated with these labs and combining different solvents and compounds."