RURAL EPISODE POINTS TO HAZARDS OF METH

Number of Seized Labs Rises in Boone County.

Sheriff's deputies and members of the Boone County Hazardous Materials
Response Team resorted to gunfire recently in dealing with two plastic
drums of anhydrous ammonia.

The top of one container bulged from built-up pressure inside, and its
screw-on cap looked as if it were about to pop, Boone County sheriff's
Detective Ken Kreigh said.

Using a .223-caliber rifle, Kreigh said, he shot both drums from about 35
yards away. On impact, the bulging container sprang up about five feet,
releasing a cloud of vapor through the bullet hole.

If authorities had not intervened, Kreigh said yesterday, the container
might have ruptured on its own, creating a life-threatening hazard for
anyone who happened to find them or for the people who left them in the
woods near Jennings Road south of Sturgeon.

The episode early this month marked the first time that sheriff's deputies
and members of the Boone County Fire Protection District had to dispose of
the volatile chemical under such extreme conditions.

It also accented the high potential for hazard associated with the rising
level of meth production across Boone County, fire and law enforcement
officials said.

The sheriff's department this year seized 18 meth labs, up from 12 labs
seized in 2002, Kreigh said. The spike is nowhere nearly as high as in some
Missouri counties, but it represents an extension of the meth trend that
started in about 2000.

Used by farmers to add nitrogen to soil before planting, anhydrous ammonia
typically is stored under pressure in tanks at about minus 200 degrees.
Even slight warming causes the liquid to vaporize and expand.

The chemical has been used increasingly by drug dealers in the Midwest to
cook methamphetamine. If released, the liquid can severely burn skin on
contact. Its vapors can permanently damage the lungs and other living
tissue, fire district Assistant Chief Ken Hines said.

A passer-by on Dec. 4 discovered the two 35-gallon drums south of Sturgeon,
Kreigh said. The containers were about 35 yards off the road, covered by
camouflage blankets and shrubs in a creek bed.

"There was a strong smell of ammonia with both tanks," Hines recalled, and
ice about a half-inch thick had formed around one drum.

Judging the containers were too volatile to be removed, Hines said,
officials followed Missouri Department of Natural Resources guidelines and
used gunfire to relieve pressure inside the tanks.

Detectives have not identified who left the drums, but other evidence at
the scene, including starter-fluid cans and a camouflaged, 5-gallon propane
tank, suggest that the chemical was being used for meth production, Kreigh
said.

Meth is a powerful stimulant, similar in effect to cocaine. It can be
smoked, injected, snorted or taken in pill form.

It is often produced in makeshift labs using cold pills and other
ingredients, such as anhydrous ammonia or red phosphorous, which is found
in flares and matches.

Federal and state figures show that police recorded 2,725 meth raids and
seizures in Missouri in 2002, the highest of any state. In 2000, there were
just 863 seizures.

Although Boone County doesn't have epidemic meth usage, Kreigh said, "I
don't want to minimize it to say we've got the problems solved because we
are seeing an increase in meth users."

Although the fire district helps the sheriff's department about once a
month in dealing with meth-related discoveries, Hines said finding
anhydrous ammonia in large plastic drums is unusual.

Meth "cooks" typically use 5-pound propane tanks for storing anhydrous,
such as the tanks used on propane-fired barbecue pits. The ammonia
typically is stolen from farms, trucks and farm-supply depots, Hines said.

"Wherever there's anhydrous, the bad guys are gonna find it," Hines said.