By conservative estimates, a meth lab can cost around $400 to clean up; a bill that local agencies have worked to reduce since federal funding dried up earlier this year.
Costs have been cut by using in-house officers to deal with the chemical mess, by using local disposal agencies and by enlisting aid from the state.
In Tennessee, the state's Meth Task Force can take charge of the cleanup, said Charlie Thomas, a captain with the Bristol Tennessee Police Department.
The state bought trailers, buckets and chemicals to use in cleanup efforts, he said, so officers who have been trained can now put on hazardous materials suits and package up the leftover chemicals, labs and materials.
"The meth truck driver pulls up with the trailer that has all of the [cleanup] stuff," he said. "We photograph it, stick it in buckets and they pour [a chemical] on it to stabilize it and it's hauled off to a storage pod. The only cost to the agency now is overtime for the personnel on scene."
The storage containers are eventually hauled off to a special dump site for hazardous chemical materials, he said. That site is in Michigan.
An undercover vice detective with the Sullivan County Sheriff's Office said deputies can deal with the cleanup if it is a smaller, one-pot lab, but larger labs require help.
"Over a certain amount, there's too much for us to take care of it," he said.
In Virginia, local agencies front the cleanup cost.
"We're trying to pay for it right now out of our own pocket," said Washington County, Va., Sheriff Fred Newman. "The cleanup and transport, we do as much in-house as we can."
Major Jack Davidson, also with the Washington Sheriff's Office, probably spends between $400 and $500 per lab, and that does not include ancillary charges like the equipment needed to dismantle the labs, to store the materials and to keep deputies safe while dealing with the volatile chemicals. He suspects his Sheriff's Office has already spent all of its money allotted to deal with the labs for the year.
"It's a very expensive endeavor," he said.
A company out of Marion hauls the materials off for storage for the law enforcement agencies in Washington County and Bristol, Va.
"We're trying to do as much as we can," Newman said, adding that it used to cost between $4,000 to $6,000 to clean up a lab, but they have gotten the cost down to a "few hundred" dollars.
Bristol, Va., Detective Mike Danser said cleaning up a lab in the city costs between $700 and $1,000, and the city pays the bill. Ideally, he said, once the meth-makers go to court, they are ordered to pay restitution for the cost of dealing with their chemical messes.
Damascus, Va., Police Chief Bill Nunley said if his officers make a traffic stop in the town limits, they're responsible for cleanup.
"Our labs right now, it can be $500 to $800 for a smaller lab," to clean up, he said, and between $1,500 and $2,000 for larger labs.
The lack of money is the biggest problem in the battle against meth, said Jack Tolbert Jr., a hazardous materials officer with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management.
"The counties just don't have the money to get it cleaned up," he said. "The DEA had funds to pay for the cleanup, and now it goes back to the jurisdictions getting calls."
Thomas said the last couple of times the Meth Task Force has helped with cleanup things have gone smoothly. Still, he said, there were some growing pains as the local officers took on the burden of dismantling and decontaminating the labs and the lab sites.
"We're cops, not hazardous material guys," he said.
But, Danser said, officials have been trying to get rid of drugs in this region for a long time.
"It takes a toll on departments financially and ... it takes a toll on the people who work it," he said. "But we definitely should be putting this kind of time and effort into it."
And, the Sullivan County vice detective said, regardless of who foots the bill -- the federal government, the state or the county -- ultimately, the taxpayers are covering the cost.
"These people [who are busted with meth labs] often don't have insurance, so the public eats the cost," he said. "It costs the county a lot. The ambulance has to be on standby, the fire department has to be on standby. And the public has to eat all those costs."
Copyright 2011 - Bristol Herald Courier, Va.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
