St. Charles City Council Green Lights Meth Clean-Up Bill

Members of the St. Charles City Council decided unanimously to sponsor a bill setting regulations for the testing, decontamination and re-occupying of structures in the city have have been used for the manufacturing of methanphetamine.

Community Development Director Bruce Evans spoke to the board first about the issue. 

"The manufacturing of meth is a problem in our society. I would need to ask the Chief to verify, but we've had four or five meth busts already this year," he said.

Evans said that the city didn't have a good ordinance currently to deal with those structures, to make sure that they have been decontaminated and safe enough to allow them to be occupied.

The city uses "whatever is on the books" currently to declare the homes unsafe, but nothing in those regulations deals specifically with the harmful chemicals created that become imbedded in the walls, ceilings and floors, he said.

The new ordinance outlines a clear procedure once an address has been identified, Evans said. The city can then close it and make it off-limits; notify the owner, require tests to detemine levels of contamination, require clean-up by a certified service and then do follow-up testing.

Evans suggested that the city require that the company hired for testing not be the same company doing the clean-up.

"That's a little too convenient," he said.

The council discussed if it was necessary to require a certified company do the cleaning, or if owners could do the work themselves.

Board President Laurie Feldman said that the bill included very specific EPA standards. "If you have the federal government saying that's what a building needs to be clean, then who are we to second guess?" she said.

Evans said that it was also important to know that a company would use the proper methods to dispose of the contaminants.

Ward 6 Council member Jerry Reese said that the issue was similar to Hazmat cleanups.  "I don’t see this as any different. I don’t want to just turn it over to some willly-nilly group," he said.