MEMPHIS - A tall man and a slender woman wiggled into their white hazardous-materials suits, putting on protective masks and gloves before venturing into the dark, two-story home where police say a methamphetamine lab recently exploded.
Gary Siebenschuh and a helper used a yellow photo ionization detector to measure for methamphetamine residue, maneuvering around debris and a hole in the roof caused by the Nov. 6 fire that injured a young child. They took wipe samples of walls, ducts, window sills and other parts of the home, later sending them to a lab to be analyzed.
“The process is extremely cumbersome, but I think it’s necessary,” said Dick Cochran, owner of the Memphis home where a renter was charged with making methamphetamine and causing the fire and explosion. He hired Siebenschuh to inspect the property.
“You don’t know how bad a house can be contaminated,” Cochran said.
Tens of thousands of houses have been used as methamphetamine labs during the past decade, and a cottage industry is developing around cleaning them up.
However, there is little oversight of the growing industry in most states, opening the door for potential malfeasance. And some homeowners are often reluctant to pay thousands of dollars to make a property safe, so many houses aren’t cleaned for years, exposing residents and sometimes even neighbors to harmful chemicals.
Cochran expects to spend thousands of dollars to make the house rentable again, with much of the cost covered by his insurance company. However, that is not the norm; many insurance policies do not cover methamphetamine cleanup.
To make a home safe, a certified contractor must remove and replace all contaminated materials, including walls, carpet and air-conditioning vents. Next, a certified “industrial hygienist” tests the home to gauge whether it can be lived in or needs more cleaning.
“You do testing in the front end, so we can find out how much meth is there,” said Siebenschuh, whose company, G7 Environmental Services, also does testing for asbestos, mold and other contaminates. “Then the homeowner hires a contractor, and then he cleans it up.”
Despite laws requiring landlords to disclose whether methamphetamine had been made on a property, experts say such disclosures often don’t happen.
Exposure to methamphetamine residue can cause respiratory problems, and health officials say contaminated homes pose a threat to public safety.
About 25 states have laws related to cleanup. Some states, such as Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, place contaminated homes on quarantine lists. Some properties on Tennessee’s list date to 2006. Cleanup costs can range from $3,000 to $25,000, depending on the home’s size and the amount of contamination.
Many independent contractors, such as Don Horne, do cleanup as a second or third job. Horne is a law enforcement officer from the small Arkansas town of Tyronza who also does pressure washing and cleaning of commercial kitchen exhausts.
Horne said in many areas, contaminated homes have become “a huge problem.”
“You’re helping the community by going in and cleaning up the properties, putting them back on the market to sell or to rent,” said Horne, who is certified to clean contaminated homes in Arkansas and Tennessee. His company, American Bio Clean, was hired by Cochran.
Horne noted that contractors who offer low bids may be cutting corners.
One Tennessee hygienist faces federal fraud charges for contracting with homeowners to clean up their properties, then illegally certifying that the homes were safe despite not being properly cleaned. Douglas McCasland has pleaded innocent and faces trial in June.
Arkansas, Pages 16 on 12/28/2013