Pubdate: Sun, 20 Jan 2002
Source: Tri-City Herald (WA)
Copyright: 2002 Tri-City Herald
Contact:  http://www.tri-cityherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/459
Author: John Trumbo

DRUG DISPOSAL OPTIONS UP IN SMOKE

Seizing methamphetamine and other controlled substances such as cocaine and 
heroin is one thing. Getting rid of the stuff is another.

What you can't do these days is turn it into ash and smoke.

Because of state Department of Ecology guidelines that apply to destruction 
of dangerous substances, law enforcement agencies across Washington have no 
place to burn up their street drugs.

That means Benton County Sheriff Larry Taylor has to keep bricks of 
cocaine, bundles of marijuana and baggies of heroin and methamphetamine in 
the evidence locker until further notice.

"We have a problem, so it just builds up," said Taylor.

It's the same story for Kennewick Police Chief Marc Harden, and for 
departments all across the state, from Spokane to Seattle.

The problem began in June when the Spokane Regional Waste Energy 
Incinerator stopped accepting narcotics to be burned.

It was the only place in Washington to incinerate illegal drugs that police 
agencies need to unload from time to time.

No one questioned the practice for nine years, said Damon Taam, contract 
manager for the incinerator.

The gigantic furnace can consume more than 800 tons of material a day with 
temperatures reaching 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Ecology's trump was triggered last spring when someone at Washington State 
University's medical program and hospital had second thoughts about tossing 
medical wastes into an incinerator.

The wastes to be destroyed were regulated by the Drug Enforcement 
Administration, and university officials were worried about liability, said 
Ecology spokeswoman Caitlin Cormier.

"They said, 'Hey, this might be hazardous waste,' " she said.

The second thoughts turned into an official designation of the 
nonbiological medical wastes as hazardous.

Such a designation triggers Ecology rules, and that is what led to the 
decision in Spokane to no longer accept law enforcement's drug caches for 
incineration.

"Ecology requires that incinerators be permitted to handle dangerous 
waste," Cormier said. "We have to look at what happens when you burn this 
stuff, and what goes into the air."

Although the situation is not critical in police evidence rooms yet, Taylor 
said if a solution to the problem is not reached, drugs will pile up.

"If Ecology has these stringent restrictions, it's imperative that Ecology 
work with the agencies to help us solve the problem," Taylor said.

Harden said Kennewick's drugs used to go up in smoke at the Kennewick 
General Hospital incinerator until July 1997 when the burn box burned 
itself up.

"We'd love to be able to get rid of the stuff. The more you have the more 
security risk, too," Harden said.

Harden said his department checked with Hanford-area companies for a quick 
fix to the problem. "We explored using a plasma fuel cell, but it didn't 
work out," he said.

Cormier said a solution may be coming via a Covanta Corp. waste energy 
plant near Salem, where negotiations are under way.

Another alternative would be to tweak the Ecology rules.

A memorandum dated Dec. 31 suggested amending "the rule-making procedure, 
which would exempt street drugs as a dangerous waste and allow them to be 
burned."

Taam, the incinerator contract manager, said the decision to ban street 
drugs from Spokane's incinerator has wide-reaching effects because the 
waste-energy furnace owned by Spokane was the only place to burn them in 
the state for nearly a decade.

"We were getting drugs (to burn) from all over, Seattle and the Tri- 
Cities," Taam said. "We did it to help law enforcement."

The charge was $132.75 a ton, with a 140-pound minimum. Taam said the 
quantities weren't huge, amounting to the equivalent of about a mini- van 
load every month.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens