Logan objects to councils paying to ensure meth labs are detoxed

A southeast council, where clandestine drug labs are uncovered almost every month, is objecting to new state rules about detoxing drug labs.

Police clean up a house in Marsden in May last year. They closed off the street after discovering an active “one pot” methamphetamine laboratory.

ENSURING suburban houses, once used as clandestine drug labs, were safe could become a cost to ratepayers, if new state government regulations come into effect in April.

And the price tag would not be cheap, going on the $550,000 it cost state taxpayers to clean up 140 clandestine suburban meth labs in the past two years.

One of the largest and most dangerous labs in Queensland was uncovered in a Marsden street, near a primary school in May last year.

The house in Marsden was near a primary school.

A meth lab was blamed for a fire that ripped through a Loganholme house in February 2017.

In June that year, another Loganholme house was raided and a drug lab dismantled and in March last year, six people were arrested after a drug lab was found at a Regents Park address.

Police remove the drugs and apparatus but then it is up to councils to ensure the building is safe.

All those properties had to be cleaned and rendered safe before people could move back in.

● DRUG LAB LOGANHOLME

Under the Drugs Misuse Act 1986, the Queensland Police Service is responsible for removing the dangerous chemicals, drug manufacturing apparatus, and other visible remnants of drug manufacturing from sites.

But the planned changes will force councils to ensure a site is safe to occupy.

This week, the plans to amend the Public Health Act 2005 in three weeks’ time and dump the responsibility of regulating public health risks on local councils, came under fire at Logan.

It was one of four council areas where the state’s highest positive drug lab readings were recorded. Redland, Yarrabilba and the Sunshine Coast were the others.

Although this property appears clean, it is heavily contaminated, with the highest reading of meth residues around 3000 times above guideline levels.

Logan unveiled plans to write to Health Minister Steven Miles objecting to the added responsibilities and calling for the changes, only announced in February, to be delayed.

Officers said the state had given no details about cost recovery options for councils forced to decontaminate a lab when the culprit could not pay or could not be found.

They said staff were not trained to carry out tests to determine if a site were safe after a drug lab and wanted details of clean-up notice requirements and safety protocols.

They also said information from the state was unclear about who was the responsible authority for cleaning up illegal labs at workplaces.

Cleaning up a meth lab is a police responsibility but councils will be responsible for ensuring the building is safe to reoccupy after the clean-up.

An officer report also put the costs of cleaning up clandestine laboratories, commonly referred to as “clan labs”, closer to $20,000 as toxic gases and aerosols were absorbed by carpets, walls, floors, drains, ducting and furnishings.

“Long-term exposure to residual chemical contamination produced at clan labs during illegal drug manufacture can be a risk to human health,” the report said.

Officers recommended council refuse to enforce the proposed provisions until staff training and “appropriate resources”, including a fund to pay for decontamination works, were provided.

Local Government Association of Queensland said it would back the council request.