From outside, the house on East Lopez Court by Lakeway Drive, looks like a nice place to live, with a bay view in a high-income neighborhood. But inside, the stench and squalor of drug addiction reveals the lifestyle of the tenants who recently abandoned the estate.
This place was once a home, until the tenants converted it to an illicit methamphetamine lab. The property is now a mortal danger to its occupants, neighborhood and surrounding environment.
This house is one of dozens of meth labs in Whatcom County, said Jeff Hegedus, environmental health supervisor for the Whatcom County Health Department.
"They’re out there," Hegedus said. "We discover one about every other week in Whatcom County."
Methamphetamine production is a chemical cocktail. Many of the ingredients are common household products — fingernail-polish remover, drain cleaner and pseudoephedrine, an over-the-counter decongestant. The byproduct of the process is extremely toxic.
The environment takes constant abuse from these labs because the concoction produces nearly 6 grams of toxic waste for every 1 gram of meth, according to the Koch Crime Institute, an anti-meth organization based in Kansas.
"It’s worse (for the environment) in many ways than industry pollution because it is completely uncontrolled," said Richard Walker, supervisor of the Washington State Department of Ecology’s Northwest region response team for meth labs. "Chemicals like anhydrous ammonia and hydrogen chloride are very dangerous. If they are kept in incompatible containers, there could be a cloud of toxic gas floating over the whole neighborhood."
When the toxic waste is dumped into a toilet or sewer, it ends up diluted in the bay, Hegedus said. If it enters the soil, the waste kills vegetation before soaking into the groundwater.
"The impact is significant, localized, and really depends on how much meth is being made," Hegedus said.
Dr. Susan Cook has felt the effects of secondhand meth herself. A toxicology consultant and former Huxley professor, Cook lived in Whatcom County on Squalicum Lake Road for much of the late ‘70s and the ’80s.
While living next to a meth house, Cook, her mother and a few friends began to feel the negative health effects associated with meth poisoning. Their symptoms included dilated pupils, loss of bladder control and memory failure. Cook, who said she has never used an illegal drug, once blacked out while driving through an intersection and nearly hit a school bus.
"I knew something was wrong, but it wasn’t until my horses got sick, too, that I started to suspect our water supply," Cook said.
Cook said she was convinced the meth lab up the road was contaminating the water in her well. After preliminary pH tests were inconclusive, Cook conducted further tests and found elevated levels of methyl mercury, which she calls a "tracer" to methamphetamine labs.
"If you see methyl mercury, you’ve probably got some meth in there," Cook said.
In the ’60s and ’70s, meth cooks used mercury in the cooking process. This is less common today, as red phosphorus is used instead.
After switching to bottled water, her symptoms soon faded.
Bill Angel, environmental health specialist for the health department, said the toxic byproduct would pollute any water it comes in contact with.
"If a big enough slug (of waste) came down, it would have a major effect," Angel said. "(Chemicals) occasionally slip by, I’m sure, but the treatment plants reduce the toxins significantly."
The volume of waste produced is the biggest environmental concern. The Department of Ecology once took 90 drums of toxic byproduct from a single meth site, Hegedus said. Ecology sends this byproduct through treatment facilities or stores it for testing.
The problem is that many labs go undiscovered and continue to operate, their cooks haphazardly dumping the waste wherever they can.
Walker said he has seen the byproduct deposited in garbage cans, sinks, toilets, woods, marinas and city parks, on dead-end roads, and once even under a baby’s crib.
"It’s hard to imagine a meth addict who cares about the environment," Hegedus said. "They just go where it’s easiest to dump."
Meth production has been focused largely in rural areas of Whatcom County because of the dangerous and illegal nature of the cooking process, Walker said.
Whatcom County spends between $12,000 and $15,000 to clean up a lab, Hegedus said. Any area where meth was cooked must be renovated completely because of the harmful residue left on interior surfaces. Washington state law requires property owners to clean former labs so no more than 0.1 micrograms of meth residue per 100 square centimeters remains, Hegedus said. Additionally, on July 12 Whatcom County Council passed an ordinance that forces land owners to submit a cleanup plan within 45 days of a lab bust and requires a complete decontamination of the property within 90 days.
"Meth is unlike any other drug I’ve seen in 32 years of law enforcement," said Whatcom County Sheriff Bill Elfo, who is also on the attorney general’s Meth Task Force. "Aside from the risk of fire and explosion, these labs are an ecological disaster waiting to happen."