Idaho law failing to get meth-lab sites reported

BOISE — A 2-year-old Idaho law meant to inform people about the locations of toxic methamphetamine laboratories has so far fallen short, because some law-enforcement agencies were unaware until recently that such homes must be reported to the state.

What's more, some residents are moving back into homes where meth labs were busted before the structures have been cleaned and tested to make sure they are safe under state health standards.

In some cases, those living in the homes say they have nowhere else to go.

Authorities say there's little they can do about people who reoccupy the homes. The Clandestine Drug Lab Cleanup Act leaves it up to property owners — not police or health officials — to keep houses on Idaho's meth-lab property list vacant until they've been judged by a certified industrial hygienist to be free of dangerous substances.

They just tear down the yellow sign posted by police identifying the home as an illegal drug lab, then move back in.

"From that standpoint, it's a paper tiger," Jim Faust, manager for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare's indoor environment program, told The Associated Press. "Keeping the property vacant is not working."

The law, in effect since April 2006, was championed by Idaho legislators in their war on the highly addictive stimulant that's linked to the convictions of half of Idaho's 7,300 prison inmates.

It was meant to give potential renters or homebuyers a Web site that listed where homes with meth labs were located. It also requires owners of the properties to remove toxic meth ingredients — such as hydrochloric acid, phosphorous and iodine — before the homes can be declared fit for habitation by Health and Welfare.

Since Idaho's law took effect in April 2006, however, just 13 homes have made the list of known meth labs.

Yet in the past 18 months, there have been nearly as many meth lab busts in northern Idaho's Bonner County alone.

What's more, there were at least 10 raids at properties in Emmett, Priest River, Sagle, Homedale, Payette, Caldwell, Spirit Lake and Oldtown, according to state records, but none of those have made the state's list, either.

Faust said he's uncertain just how many law enforcement agencies across Idaho have failed to report residences where meth labs were found. He learned of the problem recently; last week, the Department of Health and Welfare sent reminder letters to authorities in Idaho's 44 counties.