By Jennifer Latson jlatson@chronline.com, The Chronicle, 1/7/2003
Chronicle File Photo Suited cleanup workers remove material from a former methamphetamine lab on Cherry Street in Centralia. Meth labs are a growing source of hazardous material targeted by the DOE's Toxics Cleanup Program, which is seeing rising numbers of reported toxic sites.
Toxic environmental contamination may be on the rise in Washington, according to a recent report issued by the state Department of Ecology. More and more contaminated sites are being reported to the DOE's Toxics Cleanup program, despite the ongoing efforts of the department, which has cleaned up 5,017 toxic sites statewide since the passage of the Model Toxics Control Act in 1988. Although more than half of the current known toxic sites have been decontaminated, the number reported to the DOE each year is on the increase, largely owing to the number of real estate owners who wish to redevelop and sell contaminated land and need DOE oversight, according to Jim Pendowski, toxic cleanup manager for the DOE.
The program was intended to largely target aging industrial sites where chemicals have been improperly stored for decades. "When the cleanup program began, an assumption was made that, with time and steady cleanup, it would become obsolete and put itself out of business," Pendowski said. "But Washington's past industrial legacy is broader than we imagined, and it looks like we'll be busy for many years to come." They are busy in Lewis County with 12 sites in need of cleanup, according to the Aug. 27 DOE hazardous sites list. Three of the Lewis County sites are Superfund sites, recognized by the federal Environmental Protection Agency for posing a significant environmental threat and needing immediate attention.
One Superfund site in Chehalis, at the American Crossarm and Conduit Co. on Chehalis Avenue, has been largely decontaminated, although the site is still being monitored carefully. The two other sites, the Centralia landfill on South Tower Avenue and the area around Hamilton and Labree roads south of Chehalis, are still being actively cleaned. The Centralia landfill, an unlined landfill that operated from 1958 to 1994, has leeched metals and other contaminants into the surrounding groundwater. The other Superfund site is also a groundwater pollutant.
Drums of hazardous waste were discovered on property owned by the S.C. Breen Construction company along Hamilton Road near Chehalis after the chemical perchloroethylene was found in the groundwater there in 1993. Perchloroethylene, or "perc," acts similarly to alcohol when ingested, and over long periods of time can have effects on the liver, kidneys and reproductive system, and can increase the risk of cancer, according to a Department of Health Services Web site. Lewis County Environmental Health official Steve Garrett said the increase in reported toxic sites is due to heightened awareness and discovery of contaminants, not necessarily a wave of newly created sites.
"There are many different kinds of sites: old industrial sites, methamphetamine laboratories, spills. ... The old industrial sites have been around for years and years and we're just now getting around to them" as they are reported, he said. Methamphetamine labs are the only significant source of new contamination, but are being identified more and more for cleanup.
"You don't see a whole lot of newly contaminated sites other than the meth labs," Garrett said. Although the contamination associated with these labs is not as serious or long-lasting as it is with most industrial sites, the bigger meth-producing operations are both costly to clean up and hazardous to the groundwater.
"Most of them are contaminated because the residence (housing the lab) is contaminated. If you take out the carpet and scrub everything, that takes care of it. But replacing a carpet and all the cabinet work is expensive," Garrett explained.
The bigger problem, however, is the environmental impact of flushing the byproducts of meth creation down a toilet, a common practice at labs, Garrett said.
"What I've seen in Lewis County is that you actually see a chemical contamination in the drinking water and the well," he said.
Most septic systems are not equipped to clean meth chemicals, so these are leeched out into the drain field and can reach surrounding wells, he said.
"I routinely test wells because I've seen it to be a problem: we have had quite a few (that were contaminated)," he said. Lewis County may be unusual in this respect.
"Per capita, Lewis County has had more meth labs than other locations, but that number has dropped off a bit in the last six months," Garrett said.
One large former meth lab, on Burchett Road in Onalaska, was recently found to have contaminated the drinking water in that area, but was immediately cleaned, according to Garrett. In general, he emphasized, the problem is more of a financial burden than a health risk.
"If you have, say, 20 (meth lab sites) a year, then five contaminated wells in three years isn't that significant," he said, "but it can be expensive."
Jennifer Latson covers rural Lewis County, South Thurston County and East Grays Harbor County for The Chronicle. She may be reached at 807-8245.
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