Pubdate: Tue, 21 Apr 2009
Source: Langley Advance (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Lower Mainland Publishing Group Inc.
Contact:  http://www.langleyadvance.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1248
Author: Matthew Claxton

BILL TO CLEAN UP DRUG DEALERS' WASTE IS EXPENSIVE

The chemicals left by meth makers can wipe out fish if spilled into
streams.

It happens a handful of times a year. Langley Township staff will get
a call about suspicious containers dumped at the side of the road.

All too often, the pails or drums turn out to contain noxious
chemicals dumped by drug dealers.

The production of addictive crystal meth results in a host of toxic
by-products. Drug dealers don't get rid of them properly; they dump
them in parks, by roads, and on rural properties in the dead of night.

That leaves people like Kevin Larsen, the manager of water resources
and the environment department at the Township, to clean up the mess.

Larsen has been on the job just two months but he's already dealt with
his first meth lab dumping incident.

On Feb. 27, a park employee found a dump site on the edge of Derby
Reach Regional Park in North Langley.

The first action taken is to secure the site, said
Larsen.

"The number one thing is public health and safety," he
said.

Langley RCMP and firefighters secure the site to make sure no one gets
near the waste without property protection.

If the responders are lucky, the barrels and pails are still in one
piece. In February, that wasn't the case.

About 200 litres of toxic waste had spilled onto the ground when some
of the drums and pails had broken open.

The Township fire department has trained its members to do the first
response to such a spill.

"We stage uphill, upwind and upstream," said assistant fire chief
Bruce Ferguson, who has attended spill sites.

Firefighters try to protect themselves as well as the
public.

"There's much apprehension; we have no idea what's in there," Ferguson
said. No one ever assumes that any label on the containers is accurate.

To deal with leaks, the fire trucks have absorbent pads and booms to
block slicks in creeks and ditches.

If the waste reaches a major fish bearing stream, it can cause a fish
kill, wiping out hundreds or thousands of fish at one stroke.

If the spill is serious enough, Langley firefighters will call in
their Surrey counterparts, who have more equipment.

After the first response, a private contractor is called in. There are
several in the Lower Mainland, and they have all the proper equipment
to contain and safely remove toxic waste.

Quick response by firefighters, park staff, and a contractor helped
keep the environmental damage from the February spill minimal. The
waste never reached a waterway, and the contaminated soil was cleaned
up.

However, it didn't come cheap.

"A really small spill can easily be tens of thousands of dollars,"
said Larsen.

Between the potential damage and the cost of cleaning the mess up,
Larsen is glad there aren't more dump sites every year.

"It's a shame that the criminals don't have more ethics," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake