Health officials have declared an East Porpoise Bay home unfit for human habitation after the landlord discovered what appeared to be an illegal methamphetamine laboratory on June 5 and informed police.
The drug operation was abandoned and police have made no arrests.
The house is on a secluded, wooded lot at the end of Allen Road. On June 9, RCMP Cpl. Glen Evans, leader of the province's clandestine laboratory response team, was supervising a clean-up crew wearing protective suits and respirators as they removed drums and sacks of industrial chemicals as well as contaminated equipment. He described this as a medium-sized meth lab that could produce "a large amount of finished product."
"We found three 45-gallon drums with toxic chemicals, half and three-quarters full," said Evans. "There were two homemade vent hoods. They left their equipment strewn all over the place. It's dismantled and lying in heaps on the floor I believe they've been dumping chemicals into the septic tank. The upstairs toilet is totally contaminated."
A fire truck and crew of firefighters were standing by because of the dangers of fire or explosion posed by some of the chemicals, as well as to respond to any toxic spills.
"They can decontaminate the person who's in need," said Evans.
Some of the chemicals found were gallon cans of toluene, sacks of caustic soda and phosphoric acid. The glassware and lab equipment was gone.
Evans said the house had been used for a marijuana growing operation upstairs while the methamphetamine lab took up most of the basement. Only remnants of the pot grow-op were left, including some lights, bags of used soil and rotted shake, the waste part of the pot plants. An electric fence had been installed around the property.
Robert Roden, a Port Coquitlam man, said he bought the house three years ago in the hope of moving there with his wife after their children left home.
"We decided, let's get our little piece of paradise while the prices are still reasonable," he said.
Now that dream home has become a nightmare and Roden fears he may have to declare bankruptcy.
"We might have to knock the house down and live in a trailer," he said. "I'll see if I can salvage it."
Bob Weston, environmental health officer for the Sunshine Coast, said the landlord must hire an environmental consultant to assess and decontaminate the property before it is approved for occupation again.
"A lot of the chemicals become ingrained in the structure of the building, such as bare wood surfaces and carpeting," Weston said. "In some cases, it can involve the gutting of the house. In extreme cases, it can involve dismantling the house completely."
The toxic wastes must be disposed of at an approved site. Weston said the fumes from the meth cooking process and the waste chemical sludge are much more dangerous than the raw chemical ingredients.
"The vapours from cooking up this chemical soup can cause significant health concerns with respect to the respiratory system," said Weston. "Our concern is exposure to any future residents of the house until it's cleaned up."
Roden said he had no reason to suspect his tenant was doing anything wrong until he missed a rent payment and could not be reached by phone.
"Me and my buddy went up on the weekend and walked into a disaster zone," said Roden. "Every room had been destroyed. There's a hole in the front wall. The washer and dryer had been thrown outside. I found barrels of toluene and other stuff that freaked me right out. Now the house is probably condemned."
Roden said he would advise other property owners to be aware of the damage a drug-producing tenant can do."It's so prevalent. It's like a cancer, I guess," said Roden.
Roden said police have advised him landlords should protect themselves by inspecting their properties every two or three months and including permission for these inspections in the lease.
Const. Bryson Hill of the Sunshine Coast RCMP is leading the local investigation. He said while this is the first meth lab uncovered on the Sunshine Coast, RCMP "have received information of others we are attempting to locate."
Hill said meth is becoming more popular with drug users on the Coast, which is a "big, big problem."
"It affects you more than crack does," said Hill. "For a lower price, you get a longer high and a faster high. It's more addictive, and it's starting to come to our town now."
Evans said crystal meth has always been part of the drug scene, but in the last five years it has become a worse problem all over B.C.
"It's cheaper than heroin or cocaine but if people knew what it's made of, I don't think they'd be ingesting it," he said. "Long-term it's extremely bad for you. You can stay awake for days on it and it makes you very paranoid."
