NCJ Number
209157
Date Published
May 2003
Length
135 pages
Annotation
This report assesses the impact on the environment of grant policies under the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services' (COPS) Methamphetamine Initiative, which encompasses funding for the dismantling of clandestine methamphetamine labs and the associated cleanup of hazardous materials involved in methamphetamine manufacture.
Abstract
This analysis of the environmental consequences of the COPS Methamphetamine Initiative is limited to grant-funded activities. Funding under the Methamphetamine Initiative covers the removal of bottles, cans, jugs, and other containers of hazardous waste as well as the removal of contaminated apparatus and inextricably contaminated articles from a clandestine drug laboratory location. The Methamphetamine Initiative does not cover further "cleanup" of residual hazardous wastes that may remain at clandestine drug laboratory sites after the removal action is completed. For the purposes of this document, the term "environmental remediation" refers to the cleanup of residual hazardous wastes that may remain in contaminated structures, soil, or water systems after the removal action is completed. The property owner, State or local health department, or State and local environmental agency would address any residual contamination that may remain at the site after removal actions are completed. This assessment contrasts the environmental consequences of pursuing the COPS Office Methamphetamine Initiative under current parameters compared with the environmental consequences of terminating such funding. The assessment determined that in virtually every area of environmental threat to air, water, soil, human health and safety, and social effects, the Methamphetamine Initiative is a safer strategy than allowing methamphetamine labs to continue and increase due to the under-funding of law enforcement efforts to dismantle them under grant parameters. 13 appendixes of supplementary data and information