May 5, 2008 8:04 pm US/Mountain
Some Former Meth Houses Sold Without Being Cleaned
Written by investigative reporter Rick Sallinger
DENVER (CBS4) ―
Some Coloradans may be living in a home that once contained a drug lab and not even know it.
As part of a year-long investigation, CBS4 News has obtained, through open records requests, governmental lists of properties that contained methamphetamine labs that were never cleaned up.
CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger found people living in homes that may still be contaminated with meth. Governmental agencies failed to inform them, and unscrupulous homeowners sold the properties without warning the buyers.
There are hundreds, maybe even thousands of homes in Colorado that once housed meth labs. Sallinger approached a homeowner, Debbie Ward, in Jefferson County.
"This is a list from Jefferson County of former meth labs that have not been cleaned up and I believe this is your address," Sallinger pointed out.
It was her address.
"I find that shocking that that would be allowed to happen," Ward said. "That would be dangerous to our health and to our children's health."
In fact, the stunning news may have provided an explanation for Ward's 8-month-old grandson's mysterious medical problems.
"He's had seizures. He's had 13 seizures since the middle of December," Ward said.
She bought the house in 2002 and wasn't told was there had been a bust there just months before then.
She showed Sallinger the bathroom where suspicious stains were found.
Sallinger contacted the state health department. It sent a hygienist to test if there was still residue from the meth lab there. Unfortunately, despite all the time that had passed, the results came back positive for meth.
"In my opinion, it's criminal because if you know you had a meth lab and you are selling it to somebody, you are basically introducing them to meth," Fonda Apostolopoulos with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said.
It sounds a lot like the case at Georgina Miller's home.
"When I was moving off the truck, the very first day I was moving in a neighbor came over and told me that she hoped I hadn't bought the house," she said.
The house once was home to a meth lab.
"I opened this cupboard and pulled this out, and when I did, this thing fell out on my face."
That "thing" was drug paraphernalia.
The disclosure form filled out by the previous owner for hazardous materials was checked "no." But tests turned up positive and now Miller is suing them.
When a meth lab is found, no one is supposed to be allowed to occupy the house until it's cleaned.
State law requires homeowners to conduct the cleanup, but CBS4 collected lists of hundreds of former meth houses that haven't been cleaned. Sallinger started knocking on doors.
"Did you have any idea you were living in a former meth lab?" Sallinger asked a homeowner. "No idea at all," he replied.
"Nobody told you about this?" He asked another resident of an address on the lists. "Nobody told me about this," the homeowner replied. Sallinger asked if it concerned him. "Yes it does very much," he answered.
Sallinger asked Colleen Brisnehan of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment why they don't just write a letter to everyone on the list informing them they live in a former meth house. "First of all, there aren't lists statewide," she replied. "There are only lists kept by local law enforcement."
Brisnehan said law enforcement estimates only one in 10 of all homes that once contained meth labs have even been found.
The State of Colorado has a program to assist eligible homeowners with detection and clean-up, but it's up to the counties and cities to demand clean up, and some don't even have health departments.
To find out if the home you live in is on a list of former meth labs, the first call should be to the local police department. Homeowner can also contact their county health department.
(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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