Who Pays For Drug Lab Cleanup in Front Royal, VA?
Who pays for dangerous, costly, drug lab cleanup in Front Royal, VA?
The cost of drug lab cleanup in Front Royal, VA, can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. It can happen to anyone, anywhere. Often drug lab cleanup is sudden, and urgent, and frightening. Homeowners, property owners, rental tenants, and landlords await guidelines and legislative precedent from the Commonwealth regarding who is responsible for drug lab cleanup costs.
In 2015 the Code of Virginia § 32.1-11.7. authorized the Virginia legislature, in consultation with the Department of Environmental Quality and other authorities, to establish guidelines for necessary drug lab cleanup in Front Royal, VA, and throughout the Commonwealth for “residential property and other buildings” contaminated by the production of methamphetamine and other illicit, synthetic drugs. These guidelines will be used to certify that toxic chemical contamination levels measured at an affected property are brought safely below regulated standards after hazardous drug lab cleanup.
These drug lab cleanup guidelines will provide uniform protocols for safely removing, disposing of, and cleaning any and all residual chemicals from an affected property, as indicated by post-clean-up sampling and testing of materials in and around the building and surrounding land. Professional environmental testing following the completion of drug lab cleanup in Front Royal, VA, should include indoor and outdoor air quality, water testing, and sampling of a variety of building materials and contents.
As for the cost, Virginia Code § 15.2-1716.2. states:
“Any locality may provide by ordinance that any person who is convicted of an offense for manufacture of methamphetamine pursuant to § 18.2-248 or 18.2-248.03 shall be liable at the time of sentencing or in a separate civil action to the locality or to any other law-enforcement entity for the expense in cleaning up any methamphetamine lab related to the conviction. The amount charged shall not exceed the actual expenses associated with cleanup, removal, or repair of the affected property or the replacement cost of personal protective equipment used.”
This is a logical step toward mitigating the problem of attributing drug lab cleanup costs in Front Royal, VA. But drug lab cleanup contractors, like Envirotex Environmental Services, estimate anywhere from 75 to 90 percent of clandestine drug labs are never uncovered by authorities. What happens to these highly volatile and toxic “meth houses”?
Stay tuned...and contact Envirotex for more information about drug lab cleanup in Front Royal, VA, or any of our other outstanding environmental services.
