Pot times July 16, 2005

Discarded Chemicals Cause Alarm

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1122/a01.html
Newshawk: Herb

Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jul 2005
Source: Morning Star, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2005 The Morning Star
Contact: morningstarnews@bcnewsgroup.com
Website: http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1352
Author: Marshall Jones, Kelowna Capital staff
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?241 (Methamphetamine - Canada)

DISCARDED CHEMICALS CAUSE ALARM

Police, fire and hazard materials disposal crews were called out to Smith Creek Road on the Westside Thursday to clean up what appears to be residue materials from the illicit manufacture of drugs, possibly crystal meth amphetamine.

Sources say they aren't entirely sure what the chemicals were or what they were used for but it has all the hallmarks of drug production.  Westside Fire Protection District chief Wayne Schnitzler says they found 18 20-litre pails of an unknown substance, two 20-litre pails of acid and 18 20-kg bags of salt.

The biggest concern we have is the way they were just left out where people are hiking and kids riding mountain bikes," he said.  It really brought it home that we are becoming a city ourselves and these types of things are just not happening in the big cities.  We are not protected from this stuff.  Some kid could come along and stick his hand in a pail of acid."

The materials were dumped not far from Sandy George's property.

She thought someone simply dumped their garbage so she phoned the Regional District of Central Okanagan.  It wasn't until she saw Hazco Environmental Services Ltd.  there that she stopped to learn what it was.

I was just sick about it," she says.  There are kids and animals all over around here."

Gord Allan, regional manager of Hazco Environmental, says his company is quickly building an expertise in this type of disposal; some of his crews worked on a major meth lab in the Lower Mainland.

It's certainly becoming more prevalent to find chemicals required in the making of illicit drugs to be dropped off in those type of locations," he says.

They field tested the materials to get a sense of what they were.

The flammable solvents will likely be recycled into alternative fuels and the acids were neutralized but most of the materials were sent to a facility in Richmond to determine their origin.

Home meth cooks typically produce about five to seven units of waste for every unit of product and most of those chemicals are very dangerous, especially if improperly mixed.

They have been known to use red phosphorous, iodine, ammonia, paint thinner, ether, Drano and the lithium from batteries.

But as frightening as it may be to learn that some of those materials are being dumped in rural areas, Schnitzler says at least they found it.  Often the chemicals are dumped straight into the toilet.

There are so many things they could do with that stuff that is even worse," Schnitzler says.