Toxic footprint of meth labs isn't easily erased

As a restoration specialist — or as he calls it, a demolition grunt — Chris Pease's days were spent inside homes and apartments where authorities had found meth labs.

After police cleared out, he and a crew suited up in full-body protective gear and set about the dirty, painstaking job of making the buildings safe.

They pulled out furniture and carpeting, tore out sinks, counter tops and cupboards and stripped interior walls to their studs, ridding the homes of the hazardous chemicals that can permeate those materials and linger for years.

Afterward, he returned home to his pregnant wife in Manitou Springs — never suspecting they, too, lived in a former meth lab, one of hundreds in El Paso and Teller counties.

Five years after moving out, Pease and his wife fear the apartment at 840 Midland Ave. with a sweeping view of the mountains was the source of mysterious health problems that beset their daughter after her birth and continue to trail the 6-year-old, most recently with a bout of pneumonia this summer.

Meth lab seizures, once commonplace in the Colorado Springs area, have plummeted from a high of 156 in 2003 to eight so far this year. That is largely, law enforcement sources say, because laws restricting access to key ingredients helped push manufacturing into Mexico, where superlabs churn out the drug in a much purer form.

But the vanishing practice of home cooking meth left a toxic legacy here — hundreds of homes and apartments contaminated with harmful byproducts.

The long-term effects of exposure to fumes from former meth labs are still being studied. But warnings abound: Chemicals released during the meth-making process include phosphine gas, hydrogen chloride, phosphoric acid and benzene, a known carcinogen. And there are mounting reports of people suffering skin conditions, nausea and respiratory illnesses, especially those with pre-existing respiratory ailments, such as asthma.

Four hundred homes and apartments remain on a list of properties in El Paso and Teller counties where law enforcement agencies discovered meth labs between 2001 and 2008. Some of them were busted several times.

Properties that were cleaned to the state's standards have been removed from the list.

Pease and his family lived in one of the many properties that don't appear on the list — but in their case, it's because no one was keeping a list when a Dec. 20, 1999, drugmaking accident led authorities to a previous resident of their apartment.

A brief story that appeared in The Gazette after the explosion reported the roof buckled, the front door splintered in two, and the kitchen sink was launched like a projectile.

The couple moved in two months after the explosion and stayed for nearly three years.

They didn't learn about their home's past until this summer, after their former landlords at Dowda Realty Inc. sent a notice to current occupants, warning that recent testing had confirmed the presence of dangerous meth-related chemicals in two of the three apartments in the turn-of-the-century home, including where the Peases lived.

The chemicals permeate building materials, drains and ventilation systems and can be dangerous to inhale even in small quantities, the May 24 letter said.

Jennifer Pease caught word of her landlord's letter on a television news report.

Instantly, her thoughts turned to the family's unexplained illnesses during their years on Midland Avenue. She said that Chris Pease, a former wildland firefighter "who doesn't even take aspirin," complained of frequent headaches, nausea and mood swings, and that she suffered a slow recovery from a difficult pregnancy while at the house.

Their infant daughter was hospitalized for about a week with a respiratory virus and a serious ear infection, she said. The health problems have continued — with medical bills for Jennifer Pease and her daughter topping $60,000 to date.

"I was at home nebulizing her to try to keep her out of the hospital when I saw my old house on the news," she said. "I thought, ‘Why aren't they calling me: Didn't you have a baby in that house?'"

Debbie Rhea, who lived in the same apartment for nearly two years until receiving the letter, told The Gazette in July that her granddaughter, too, suffered unexplained illnesses. The girl, who moved in at 8 months, developed a hacking cough doctors couldn't explain, and the girl and her mother later moved out.

"She would cough until she threw up," Rhea said.

Rhea, a cancer survivor, also had her own health to worry about.

Both families say that doctors want the report describing levels of contamination. Rhea sent an attorney's letter to the property manager requesting a copy, without success. Christopher Pease said he plans to file a lawsuit.

"I'm not sure about the legalities," he said. "But I'm going to do anything possible to take care of my family."

Dowda Realty began managing the Midland Avenue home after the fire in 1999 but was never told that meth was to blame for the explosion, according to Shannon Norgord, the managing broker. The listed owner, Eleanor Rowley, lives in a nursing home, and her property is overseen by her daughters, Norgord said.

One of them, Carolyn Dean, has a copy of the report but "has chosen not to respond" to requests from the occupants, Norgord said. Dean and her sister could not be located by The Gazette, and attempts to reach them through Dowda Realty were unsuccessful.

Norgord said Wednesday that it "never occurred to (her)" to send the letter to former occupants such as the Peases.

"Our primary concern was to get the tenants out of a potentially hazardous situation, and I think we did that as quickly and efficiently as possible," Norgord said.

Nothing in the law requires landlords to tell tenants, said Jim Goodwin, a compliance and enforcement officer with the El Paso County Department of Health and Environment.

Colorado introduced clean-up standards for former meth labs in 2005, and the law makes no exception for labs discovered before its passage.

A program under the county Health Department oversaw the cleanup of 40 former meth labs beginning in early 2005 and attempted to force owners of 14 other properties to complete the process, Goodwin said. The department didn't have the resources to pursue labs discovered before 2005, and the program was closed altogether July 18 as part of budget cuts.

Owners who wish to comply with the law may hire an industrial hygienist to clean the house to standard and obtain a "fit for use" certificate to clear the way for new occupants.

With the closing of the county's program, however, there is no local agency to ensure that happens, Goodwin said.

"That's what concerns me," he said, "that people are moving into these places and don't know anything about the problem."

Q&A: FORMER METH HOUSES

How can I find out if I live in a former meth lab?

People can check the city's list or map of seized meth labs on the Colorado Springs Police Department's Web site. Only properties raided between 2001 and 2008 will appear.

El Paso County Sheriff's Sgt. Bob McDonald suggests that homebuyers hire an industrial hygienist to perform testing before closing the deal.

"If I was to buy a house in Colorado Springs, I would have it tested," he said.

Jim Goodwin, a county compliance officer, said he gives this advice to tenants who find they are living in one of the listed properties: "I tell them to sue."

How many former meth labs are in the Colorado Springs area?

Four hundred houses and apartments remain on a list of properties documenting seizures between 2001 and 2008. The list is compiled by a multijurisdictional unit, Metro Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence (VNI), and includes properties in El Paso and Teller counties.

It's hardly comprehensive, said McDonald, who oversees one of the VNI street teams that make the busts.

"We've probably missed three times as many labs as we've found," he said.

How can property owners get off the list?

The only way to have a property removed is to obtain a "fit-for-use letter" after complying with steps laid out in state law. That means hiring an industrial hygienist to perform cleanup and the necessary testing.

The process also provides limited liability for property owners.

For more information, see the Metro VNI Web site.

Contact the writer: 636-0366 or lance.benzel@gazette.com