Department of Ecology

The Department of Ecology's mission is to protect, preserve, and enhance Washington's environment and to promote the wise management of the land, air, and water.  That responsibility extends to protecting the environment from the harmful chemicals used to produce meth.

As long as meth labs are in operation, communities around the state will be at risk from the indiscriminate production and dumping of methamphetamine lab waste.  When common household chemicals are combined to make the illegal drug, toxic gases and solutions are created.

Until 1997, Ecology called in a contractor to clean up meth sites while its staff remained on location to oversee their work.  Beginning in 1997, Ecology's regional spill response teams and after-hours responders received training and equipment to clean up meth lab wastes and chemicals at the request of law enforcement officials.  Through hard work and innovation, spill response teams were able to respond to more than four times as many meth labs this year compared to 1997.  Through significantly reducing reliance on contractors and increasing Ecology's capacity to respond to meth lab clean ups, Ecology saved $126,000 in 1997 which was redirected to training and emergency response equipment.  In 2000, Ecology avoided spending $1.9 million in contractor costs.

Response time to clean up sites was reduced by having trained Ecology teams respond directly to an incident rather than calling in contractors for response.  In addition, the National Guard has been trained to help clean up sites. In some communities, local law enforcement officers have been trained to clean up small, simpler sites.  The chemicals are securely stored for Ecology response teams to pick up and dispose of in batches.  This saves time and allows Ecology to respond more quickly to the larger, complex sites.

For more information go to http://www.ecy.wa.gov/.