Hearing of House Committee on Science House of Representatives: H.R. 798, Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2005
HEARING OF HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: H.R. 798, METHAMPHETAMINE REMEDIATION RESEARCH ACT OF 2005
March 3, 2005
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Mr. Calvert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I am certainly proud to join you as an original co-sponsor to Mr. Gordon's bill, H.R. 798, the Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2005.
Mr. Gordon, I certainly thank you for bringing this very important issue to the Committee's attention. I know the Committee's Majority and Minority staffs have worked together since last year to develop and revise this legislation.
As Co-Chairman of a 100-plus member Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine, I know of the growing meth problem in this nation and show no deference--I know it shows no deference to District or party lines. This is an issue everyone can agree is wreaking havoc on our communities across the Nation.
As mentioned by the Chairman and Ranking Member, H.R. 798 focuses its efforts on procedures and standards needed to decontaminate a site where methamphetamine is found so our communities can more thoroughly remediate these sites, which will protect our citizens and ensure the health of the environment. In my area in Riverside, California, methamphetamine production has reached epidemic proportions, with many of these labs having the distinction of being labeled ``super labs.'' These labs are capable of producing over 10 pounds of finished meth per batch. One such lab was seized in 2003 operating out of a barn in a rural area in Riverside County, producing over 6,000 pounds of finished product with a street value of over $33 million. Over four million pounds of contaminated toxic soil had to be removed with heavy equipment, costing in excess of $226,000. Officials from the California Department of Toxic Substance Control has called this the most difficult and costly methamphetamine lab cleanup in California's history.
So as you can see, this is a distressing issue which our region, and quite frankly most of America, is becoming all too familiar with. Our State and local agencies need all of the resources and tools we can provide them in their efforts to address this problem.
I am well aware that much more needs to be done to win this fight against this devastating drug, I am optimistic that this legislation will be a good start in that fight and will be welcomed by our communities.
I certainly want to thank the witnesses for being here today. I look forward to hearing your testimony. I am sure you will enlighten us on the severity of this current methamphetamine remediation problem and hope you will provide us with some constructive advice and feedback for our legislation.
I am surely proud of this Science Committee for doing its part to fight drug addiction and specifically methamphetamine and those aspects that fall within our committee's jurisdiction. And I certainly want to thank Bart Gordon for his good work in this legislation, and I want to again thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Calvert follows:]
Prepared Statement of Representative Ken Calvert
Thank you, sir.
Mr. Chairman, I am proud to have joined you as an original sponsor to Mr. Gordon's bill--H.R. 798, the Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2005. Mr. Gordon, I thank you for bringing this very important issue to the Committee's attention. I know the Committee's Majority and Minority staffs have diligently worked together since last year to develop and revise this legislation.
As a Co-Chairman of 100+ member Congressional Caucus to Fight and Control Methamphetamine, I know the growing meth problem in this nation shows no deference to district or party-line. This is an issue everyone can agree is wreaking havoc on our communities across the Nation. As mentioned by the Chairman and Ranking Member, H.R. 798 focuses its efforts on the procedures and standards needed to decontaminate a site where a methamphetamine lab is found so our communities can more thoroughly remediate these sites which will protect our citizens and ensure the health of the environment.
In my area of Riverside, California, methamphetamine production has reached epidemic proportions with many of these labs having the distinction of being labeled superlabs--these are labs that are capable of producing over ten pounds of finished methamphetamine per batch. One such lab which was seized in 2003 operated out of a barn in a rural area of Riverside County and produced over 6,000 pounds of finished product with a street resale value of over $33 million dollars. Over four million pounds of contaminated toxic soil had to be removed with heavy equipment, costing in excess of $226,000. Officials from the California Department of Toxic Substance Control has called this the most difficult and costly methamphetamine lab clean up in California's history.
So as you can see this is a distressing issue which my region, and quite frankly, most of America is becoming all too familiar with. Our State and local agencies need all the resources and tools that we can provide them with in their efforts to address this problem. Although we are all aware that much more needs to be done to win the fight against this devastating drug, I am optimistic H.R. 789 will be a good start in that fight and will be welcomed by our communities.
I thank the expert witnesses for being here today and I look forward to hearing your testimony. I trust you will further enlighten us all on the severity of the current methamphetamine remediation problem and hope you will provide us with some constructive feedback on our legislation.
I am truly proud that the Science Committee is doing its part in the fight against methamphetamine by tackling those aspects that fall within our committee's jurisdiction. And with that I want to thank Mr. Gordon again and thank you Mr. Chairman.
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Mr. Calvert. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again, thank you for this hearing.
Unfortunately for us in California, we have quite a bit of experience with this. And we have had some progress, and some of the law enforcement people that I have discussed this with also need research. And one of the things that was pointed out to me, and I don't know if any research is being done elsewhere in the country, is on thermal signature where equipment can be put on a police car or a helicopter or other equipment where you can identify a thermal signature that may be coming out of a trailer or from a motel room or from another suspicious location. Is there anything--any research that you are aware of that is being done, say, at Tennessee Tech or other places on that?
Dr. Bell. There are speculations about how that could be done, but we don't have any definitive research. A member of the Drug Task Force is now a representative for the State of Tennessee and has introduced some legislation to look at that. Judd Matheny is his name, and he served early as a helicopter pilot in marijuana, thermal analysis. And he is hopeful that there is some, but we have no evidence of that at this point. It is worth investigation.
Mr. Calvert. The reason I point that out, I am kind of double--I am on the Defense Committee, also, and we have been using thermal signatures for other purposes. And I don't know if we could explore--I know there is an issue of posse commatadus and how we share information and the rest, but has there been any outreach to the Department of Defense to maybe share in some of that technology, some of that research that is already being done, which we use, quite frankly, quite often. As far as you know, there hasn't been any sharing of information?
Dr. Bell. As far as I know, sir, there has not been.
Dr. Martyny. I believe there has been some work by Sandia Labs, trying to share information on remote sensing--developing protocols to actually be able to do remote sensing using forward-looking IFR and looking at some of these effluents coming off of the materials.
Mr. Calvert. I was aware of software development working with utility companies to find spikes in utility operations. At that--has that been, in any way, perfected, or does that still need some work? I know that individual motel chains have been using that because of the problems they have had in motel rooms and cooking and those kinds of things. But are you seeing evidence of that in, say, upstate New York?
Mr. Howard. We haven't had any utilization of any software in that means. The power companies in our area are more than helpful when asked if they have had any spikes in the area, but we haven't had any software development or usage of software.
Mr. Calvert. Well, and one last comment. I know, because of some success we have had in California, unfortunately these labs are being pushed out to the rest of the country, most of the methamphetamine that is coming now into California, 90 percent probably--and I don't know what it is nationwide, is coming out of these super labs, primarily out of Mexico and being smuggled across. So that is a--that is probably a problem Mr. Burns has to deal with, and I know that is probably not the jurisdiction of this committee, but I just want to point that out. And if you have any comment about that, that is the difficulty we are unfortunately living under right now.
Mr. Burns. Well, you are absolutely right, Congressman Calvert. We have to be as fluid as the traffickers. For a time, the vast majority of pseudoephedrine was, as you know, coming in from Canada. We responded to that threat. We have seen a significant reduction of the super labs in your state, as much as a 50 to 60 percent reduction. And you are correct. We believe the threat has now moved to Mexico. I guess if there is any good news, they are polluting the rivers and the streams and the forests and the beautiful land in Mexico, as opposed to your state, but the bad news is the poison continues to flow into the United States. So we are responding.
Mr. Calvert. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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