Construction workers clearing space for a new recreational area in the Los Padres National Forest came across an unnerving find. Barely concealed in the brush was a big heap of nastiness: a meth dump.
On Nov. 4, crews found a large cache of solidified chemical compounds—known by authorities to be byproducts of methamphetamine production—loosely wrapped in plastic bags.
Workers discovered the hazardous materials in a wooded area near the Fremont Campground close to the intersection of Paradise Road and Manzanita Street off of Highway 154. They were tearing down condemned U.S. Forest Service-owned cabins to develop the Red Rock recreational area at the base of a hiking trail that leads to a number of swimming holes.
Narcotics detectives from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department were called to the site to investigate. To safely collect and process the materials, detectives donned heavy-duty protective gear.
The waste later had to be transported to a secure facility off-site by haz-mat representatives from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.
Though the area is remote and a good distance away from the nearest campground, it’s unlikely the culprits were actually processing the methamphetamine where the waste was discovered, said Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Brad McVay. Instead, he explained, it’s more likely the spot’s remoteness led someone to select it as a dumping ground.
“This area is not a campsite, and in fact the only people who would normally be in this area would likely be hunters,” McVay told the Sun. “So, needless to say, it’s a
highly attractive spot for people trying to stay out of sight.”
Evidence points to the waste originating from a small, clandestine meth lab—what McVay called a “home cook lab.”
“[Meth] cooking creates a huge amount of waste for only a small amount of actual meth,” McVay said. “We’re talking about extremely environmentally hazardous materials, and there’s no way for them to get rid of it properly without attracting attention, which they obviously don’t want.”
Beyond the risks associated with cooking—such as fire, explosion, poisonous gas, and the obvious consumption of the drug—chemical contamination from the hazardous waste found in clandestine methamphetamine labs poses serious dangers to the environment, killing vegetation and wildlife, contaminating groundwater, and increasing the risk of wildfires.
According to Department of Justice figures, every pound of methamphetamine manufactured in such a lab generates fives times as much toxic waste.
Sheriff’s Department Detective Mark Valencia said, based on the amount of waste discovered at the Los Padres site, the originating lab likely generated “anywhere from three to five pounds of good crystal meth.”
A press release about the discovery stated the waste appeared to have been left there within the last year. However, Valencia said certain evidence indicates it might have been discarded as recently as three months or so ago.
The waste was still wrapped in plastic, which he said would typically be degraded from the chemicals within eight months. Grass continued to grow around the dump, which is another sign of its possibly recent origins.
Officials are continuing to investigate the matter, but without any witnesses coming forward, there’s not much to go on, McVay said. Officials are still optimistic, however, that they’ll find a witness or that forensic evidence will yield a crucial tip.
Valencia said authorities at the off-site facility took samples of the product, the results of which were sent to the Department of Justice. Investigators are awaiting results from those tests to determine if the method used to process the materials matches profiles of any other dump sites discovered in the recent past.
“Most of the cooks are very specific to their own style of cooking,” Valencia explained.
Santa Barbara County hasn’t seen many of these types of rural meth waste dumps in recent years. However, Valencia said, between 2001 and 2005 they were more common, likely because of the remote nature of much of the inland county and federal land. Oddly, he said, authorities are finding meth byproducts in public landfills.
According to Valencia, one of the most effective means to fight methamphetamine production is raising public awareness. He said common precursor ingredients include ephedrine, pseudoephedrine, and red phosphorus, as well as more common chemicals such as iodine and Freon and their associated products; anyone purchasing such items in bulk should be considered highly suspect.
Authorities ask anyone with information about this latest case or any other possible methamphetamine labs to contact the Sheriff’s Anonymous Tip Line at 681-4100.
Staff Writer Matt Fountain can be reached through at mfountain@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 18-25, 2010.
