STATE REPORTS FEWER CLEANUPS OF METH LABS

Cleanups of methamphetamine labs and dumps in Clark County remained
steady at an average of about one per week last year, even as the
number declined by 11 percent statewide.

The Department of Ecology, which conducts more than 90 percent of the
state's meth site cleanups, released its annual report Wednesday. It
tallied 57 incidents in the county last year, exactly the same as 2001
and about double the number reported in 2000.

Statewide, the number of reported meth site seizures and cleanups
dropped to 1,693 from 1,890 in 2001. Washington, which ranked second
in the nation in methamphetamine lab seizures in 2001, slipped to
third last year.

"A lot of people at all levels of government and many community groups
have worked very, very hard to achieve even this small progress," said
Dale Jensen, manager of Ecology's spill response program. "This is not
so much a light at the end of the tunnel as it is a tunnel that quit
running uphill."

While fewer meth labs were discovered in the highest-volume counties,
including Pierce, King, Spokane and Thurston, they increased sharply
in several smaller counties.

For example, meth lab incidents jumped from nine to 28 in Cowlitz
County and from 61 to 83 in Lewis County between 2001 and 2002.

The trend in Clark County is toward a proliferation of smaller labs
that operate to feed the habits of individual meth users, said
Commander Keith Kilian of the Clark-Skamania Interagency Drug Task
Force. Some labs are so compact they fit in the trunks of cars, he
said.

Kilian said in a recent interview that his team responds to all leads
on drug lab operations because of the extreme hazard the chemicals
used to "cook" meth pose to the community.

"We'll do any lab we can do, any size," he said.

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, D-Vancouver, who helped land a $100,000 grant
for the task force in 2001, said through a spokesman that he was
encouraged by the decline in meth lab seizures statewide after several
years of sharp increases. The money was used to train officers, buy
protective suits and acquire other equipment for dismantling meth labs.

Police arrive first

"These numbers show that, due to a combination of community awareness,
increased capabilities of law enforcement, availability of social
services, and increased funding for anti-meth initiatives we have been
able to make substantial progress toward eradicating meth use in
Washington state," Baird said.

"I will continue to work at the federal level to give our local law
enforcement officials the resources they need to continue this fight."

In a typical meth lab seizure, police arrive first at the scene, where
they make arrests, secure the site and collect evidence. Ecology
employees arrive soon after to remove contaminated materials and toxic
chemicals used in meth manufacture, including acids, sodium hydroxide,
flammable solvents, anhydrous ammonia, lithium, metals and red phosphorus.

Meth cooks often hide their waste in pits or near wells, ponds or
creeks to avoid detection. In Clark County, meth waste has even been
dumped at a shopping mall.