POT HOUSES PUTTING STRAIN ON HYDRO BILLS

Houses With Pot Labs Are Dangerous

That house on your street being used to grow marijuana could cause an
increase in your hydro bill. Brampton Hydro One One officials have been
working with Peel police in an attempt to stop the massive theft of
electricity and the damage done to hydro property by the operators of the
residential hydroponics growing labs.

"This is something that is costing a lot of money," said a hydro official
who did not want to be identified because of his direct involvement in the
project. "In the end, we are a non-profit organization and somebody has to
pay. It's on the backs of other homeowners."

Since July, the 115 marijuana labs identified in this area have cost
Brampton Hydro One $1.25 million. The bulk of the money is the cost of
stolen hydro. The rest is the approximately $2,000 per house needed to dig
and repair the damage done to the hydro cables at each home, according to
authorities.

So far, Brampton Hydro One has managed to collect $750,000. The money is
recovered from the owner of the home. Many willingly pay hydro bills
averaging between $15,000 and $20,000 because service is cut off until the
bill is settled, according to officials.

It's not known what long-term effect the heavy usage may have on the power
cables. The average homeowner uses between 35 and 45 kilowatt hours per day
while a marijuana growing lab set up in a house drains between 400 and 800
kilowatt hours per day.

"The cables aren't really designed to handle that," the hydro official said.

In an attempt to find more of the thieves, the last hydro bill mailed to
customers included a list of things neighbours can look for to identify a
marijuana lab, and the telephone number of the Peel police Morality Bureau.

Money isn't the only concern, or the most important, for hydro officials,
though.

They say safety concerns are paramount in their quest to search out and
shut down the drug operations.

One hydro official called it a "rat's nest of wires" inside a home modified
for growing marijuana and said many light fixtures are "live to the touch."

Peel police Insp. John Nielsen has expressed the same concerns.

The 1,000 watt Mylar bulbs used to grow the marijuana plants suck a lot of
electricity, so to avoid detection, the hydro boxes at the sides of the
houses are circumvented, according to Nielsen. That creates a serious fire
hazard because those doing the rewiring are not electricians, and the work
is often done incorrectly. In some cases it has left the lawn around the
hydro boxes "live" and, under certain circumstances, deadly.

"These houses are only five feet apart," Nielsen said last year while
standing outside one of the residential drug labs. "What I don't want is
one of these to go up in flames and some innocent kids or people getting
killed because they were trapped in their house in the middle of the night."

Authorities say they have only found the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes
to residential marijuana growing labs.

Police and hydro officials say for those homeowners renting their
properties to a tenant, it is their responsibility to check on it once in a
while.

As for neighbours, some of the tip-offs are: Nobody is ever home, the
people who rent the home come by for two hours during the day or night, and
then leave again, there is a strange odour from the house, the windows are
never open, the air conditioner never runs, the windows are covered up,
there is never any natural lighting coming from the upper or lower levels,
there are indications the ground has been dug up around the hydro box, a
television is left on, yard work or snow shoveling isn't done regularly.

"These guys want to do a little bit of work, just to blend into the
neighbourhood," Nielsen said.