A special committee is looking for long-term solutions to the problem of funding the cleanup of meth labs across South Carolina. The Laurens County Sheriff's Office has already tried one approach that officials call a money-saver.
Because of the hazardous nature of the illegal drug labs, most law enforcement agencies pay private contractors to dismantle, remove and dispose of the components that make up a lab.
"These meth labs aren't cheap," says Lt. Jawarski Shelton with Laurens County. "They cost about $3000 for every lab."
Up until last year, Federal money paid for the cleanup of the labs. But the grant money ran dry. The South Carolina legislature passed an emergency proviso to set aside $1 million for SLED to conduct the cleanup of labs found across the state. But according to officials, that money will likely be used up by July. If that happens, local counties and police departments will have to pick up the bill.
A state committee organized by SLED is looking for long-term solutions to the funding problem. Laurens County has had success and saved money by training deputies to identify and dismantle meth labs.
"We were able to neutralize the material, pack it up, and take it to a storage location at the old jail," says Shelton. Once a month, a contractor would come to pick up the material to dispose of it. "That way, we were only paying the contractor one bill a month versus calling them everytime we found a lab."
He estimates the move saved Laurens County thousands of dollars during the six months it used that system until the state funding kicked in.
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