TERRE HAUTE — Clandestine drug labs can be found anywhere — indoors, in vehicles, even in the woods.
But most of the time in the Wabash Valley, labs are set up in houses, apartments, hotels or motel rooms, mobile homes, even storage units.
How does the public know that their next stay in a motel room, apartment, or their newly purchased home has not been contaminated by a methamphetamine lab?
Hopefully, the property owners follow the rules enacted by the Indiana General Assembly in 2005, and updated since then to give the Indiana Department of Environmental Management oversight on meth lab cleanups.
“If there is a lab, we have to tear out the apartment, and that could even include the ductwork,” said Lisa Reed of Team Realty, which handles numerous rental properties in the Terre Haute area.
The laws that apply to landlords and meth labs are strict, Reed said, and are terrifying to consider as far as expense.
“Fortunately, I have never had a meth lab yet,” Reed said of her rental properties. But she knows of some in the area, and has seen some properties posted as “unfit for human habitation” by the county health department, pending a professional cleanup of the site.
Doretta Held of Crisis Cleaning, a Bloomfield company that specializes in cleaning up crime scenes, said her company has stayed busy in recent years cleaning up meth labs, especially throughout southern Indiana.
It is costly to decontaminate a property — $3 to $5 per square foot depending upon the level of contamination and the size of the structure.
“It can cost $5,000 to $6,000 for a small house, or $10,000 for a larger home,” Held told the Tribune-Star. “And if there are multiple stories to a home, it can be more.”
And, those costs are just for ripping out carpeting, padding, furniture and other porous objects that cannot be cleaned because the contamination from the toxic chemicals has seeped into the objects.
Depending on the level of contamination, the tear-out could include ceiling fans, cookstove ventilation, even a furnace and ductwork if the contamination level is high.
Held said that Crisis Cleaning, which is one of the certified inspectors listed on the IDEM website, has cleaned up several sites around the state, as well as in Illinois and Kentucky. Last year, Crisis conducted about 35 to 40 lab site cleanups for IDEM, she said.
Fortunately for some property owners, insurance companies have been paying for the clean-up costs because damage from a meth lab is considered vandalism.
“If it’s a lucrative rental property,” Held said, “the owners definitely want the site cleaned up.”
Drywall can be effectively decontaminated with the correct cleaning, she said, cautioning that just painting over the contaminated walls will only make the problem worse.
Following a methamphetamine lab bust, police remove the chemicals and equipment from the site, but they do not remove the residual contamination caused by the cooking of hazardous chemicals used to make the drugs. The residue can contaminate walls, floor coverings, heating and air conditioning systems, and furnishings, and anyone who moves into the contaminated dwelling will be exposed to the deadly chemicals left behind by the cooking process.
Indiana’s laws are intended to protect future occupants of such dwellings.
But about the only way a potential renter can find out if a location has housed a meth lab is to ask the property manager.
Held said that Crisis Cleaning has been hired to clean up some motels where meth labs were discovered. She declined to give the names and locations of the motels, but said the economy-style motels seem to be more susceptible to the crime.
Anyone who has questions about the cleanup of illegal drug labs can visit the IDEM website at www.in.gov/idem.
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