Meth responders receive governor's award

On Aug. 31, Gov. Gary Locke presented his Quality and Service Improvement Award to the methamphetamine response team from the Department of Ecology.

Many communities around the state suffer from both the environmental damage caused by the indiscriminate production and dumping of methamphetamine lab waste and from the risk this waste poses every day to residents, particularly children.

The meth manufacturing process involves mixing common household chemicals together to make the illegal drug. When combined, they create toxic gases and solutions that can be extremely harmful to the environment and people.

Ecology's spill response teams clean up the toxic wastes and chemicals at the request of local law enforcement officials. In 1997, Ecology responded to 349 requests for cleanup assistance. In 2000, the response rate more than quadrupled, to 1,454 clean ups.

Ecology had to take numerous efficiency steps to meet the increased demand for assistance.

Results

Through significantly reducing reliance on contractors and increasing Ecology's capacity to respond to meth lab cleanups, the department saved $126,000 in 1997, which was redirected to training and emergency response equipment. In 2000, Ecology avoided the cost of $1.9 million in contractor services.
Response time to clean up sites was reduced by having trained Ecology teams respond directly to an incident, rather than calling in contractors. In addition, the state 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.

More information about the award is available at http://www.ecy.wa.gov/quality/econominees.html.