Cleanup of a meth lab. Photo from EPA
The Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho has received $200,000 from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up houses that were contaminated by methamphetamine:
Federal dollars meant to restore toxic areas like old factories, mines and gas stations are now going to clean up after another long-time industry: methamphetamine. For the first time, the EPA’s brownfields program is covering the clean-up of former meth houses, and the inaugural sites are right here in the Northwest. It’s sometimes called "third-hand exposure." Toxic residue from meth production and use can permeate drywall and carpet and linger on countertops and in ventilation systems. That’s what the Coeur d’Alene Tribal Housing Authority discovered in some of its public housing. The north Idaho tribe just received a $200,000 grant to gut six tribe-owned homes. "A number of them were just party homes," said Heather Keen, spokeswoman for the tribe. "And the level of cleanup that will need to be done so that they’re safe to inhabit was just more than the Tribal Housing Authority was financially prepared for."Get the Story:
Northwest Meth Houses To Get Scrubbed Under EPA Program (KUOW 7/28)
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