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Friday, March 23, 2007

Ind. Law - "Law puts meth lab clean-up burden on landlords" [Updated]

Arthur E. Foulkes of the Terre Haute Tribune Star writes today:

New rules for cleaning up after methamphetamine labs in Indiana may create more financial risk for landlords of rental housing.

The new regulations, which take effect today, require that people who own land where a meth lab has been discovered must use a state-approved inspector to verify that their property has been cleaned up well enough to meet standards set by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

The new regulations also prohibit selling any property where a meth lab has been found until after a state-approved inspector gives the landowner a “certificate of decontamination.”

There are presently seven IDEM-approved inspectors in Indiana, according to the IDEM Web site. The inspection service closest to Terre Haute is Crisis Cleaning in Bloomfield. Others are in Gary, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Greenwood.

“IDEM does not regulate or control fees for cleanup and inspection services,” the IDEM Web site states.

Meth lab property cleanups can cost between $5,000 and $70,000, said Steve Mojonnier, a rule writer in the Office of Land Quality at IDEM. “It all depends on how much contamination there is [and] where it is,” he said. People making meth are “usually not very neat about it,” he added.

The new regulations put a greater burden on property owners, Mojonnier said; however, even without the regulations, meth lab cleanups often are very expensive. Sometimes the owner of a home with a relatively low market value will have it demolished rather than go to the expense of cleaning it up, he said.

Here is the new, 18-page rule.

First you've heard of it? See this lengthy ILB entry from August 6, 2006, which concludes with this:

How much is this going to cost the property owner? Nowhere in the information in pages 1 and 2 of the proposed rule does anyone venture a quess. But the cleanup contractors will make money. See this statement on p. 2:
[T]he economic impact of this rulemaking cannot be meaningfully quantified at this time. Compliance with this rule will be a significant cost to property owners affected by this rule. At the same time, compliance with this rule would allow remediation contractors, wrecking contractors, and other contractors to receive payment for services performed under this rule. The Department expects the costs to property owners to roughly balance the benefits to contractors who clean up these properties.
Well yes.

So does this proposed rule go beyond the directive set in the authorizing statute? Or is it the statute that places these responsibilities on the property owner? In either case, if not the property owner, then who should be responsible for the cost of the cleanup?

[Update 3/27/07] The Chesterton Tribune has a brief story today, apparently based on an IDEM press release. A quote:
“Under the new rule,” IDEM explained, “a qualified inspector must check for and clean up the hazardous residue from interior surfaces before new occupants can move into houses, apartments, and hotel rooms where drugs were manufactured. The rule also establishes cleanup levels tat must be attained and a list of contractors who are qualified to inspect and clean up the former site.”

Property owners can find the qualified inspector list on IDEM’s website at www.idem.IN.gov/programs/land/drug_lab

IDEM maintains the qualified inspector list and provides training to contractors who want to become qualified inspectors.

“Property owners now have a way to provide new occupants or prospective purchasers with credible certification that the living space has been cleaned up to state standards,” said IDEM Commissioner Thomas Easterly. “I encourage all property owners, realtors, health departments, and cleanup inspectors to visit our website for more information.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 23, 2007 08:29 AM
Posted to Indiana Law