Monica Shaff didn’t realize she had moved her family into the
site of a former methamphetamine lab until after she signed the
lease.

In 2009, Shaff, her now ex-husband and her three children found
room to grow in a modest two-story home near downtown Twin
Falls.

But after the paperwork was finished, Shaff said landlord Mitch
Campbell had a somewhat ominous warning:Keep the kids away from
playing in backyard shed.

Only months earlier, in March 2008, Twin Falls police swarmed
upon 528 Fourth Ave. W., lining the property with yellow tape as
men in white hazardous materials suits scoured the shed for
tell-tale signs of meth production.

Later, with his tenants jailed and the shed’s contents removed,
Campbell thought it would be safe to rent out the property again.
But today that property remains on an Idaho Department of Health
and Welfare list of places considered as former meth labs that
haven’t been properly cleaned of potentially hazardous
chemicals.

“He also told us it had been cleaned properly. I’m floored right
now,” Shaff said after learning that the rental home remains on
Health and Welfare’s list.

Campbell’s Fourth Avenue home is again up for rent and is one of
three Twin Falls properties on Health and Welfare’s list. Another
listed downtown property is home to an elderly couple, while a
foreclosed-upon home less than 10 years old also remains on the
list.

Each stands as a reminder of a dying illegal trade, as the U.S.
meth lab has largely been replaced by traffickers who ship the drug
in from Mexico. Seizures of Idaho meth labs plummeted from 169 in
1999 to only four in 2009.

But each lab leaves behind potentially hazardous cocktail of
gasoline additives, solvents, rubbing alcohol and potassium iodine
— not the kind of things folks want to be around, much less have
their children play near.

Lacking federal guidance on how to clean the labs, the Idaho
Legislature in 2005 passed the Clandestine Drug Laboratory Cleanup
Act, tasking Health and Welfare with devising a program to list
former meth labs and advise owners on how to clean them.

Health and Welfare’s rules went into effect in 2006 and were
revised in 2009. But a lack of enforcement has led to confusion for
property owners like Campbell, who until earlier this week, said he
didn’t know his property was listed as unclean.

According to Jim Faust of the Department of Health and Welfare,
the agency doesn’t monitor if people live in listed properties, nor
does any other government or law enforcement agency.

And while property owners are supposed to tell potential buyers
that a property was once home to a meth lab, they’re not tasked
with cleaning the site in any timely fashion.

“There’s no timetable,” Faust said.

Each Twin Falls property that remains on the unclean lab list
has its own story to tell. The commonality is that for each, the
taint of being home to a former meth lab is one that won’t wash off
without action that its owner is either unwilling to undertake, or
unaware is necessary.

552 Second Ave. E.

Don Patterson and his wife, well into their 80s, are not the
biggest fans of local authority.

Nearly four years ago, their son, Dale, was arrested and later
convicted of making and selling meth from a trailer in the backyard
of their property, which is directly across the street from Bickel
Elementary School. Don Patterson said he disposed of the trailer
years ago and claims to have no knowledge of his property being
listed on Health and Welfare’s list of clandestine labs.

He’s not particularly interested in revisiting the subject, and
spoke only briefly with the Times-News last week.

“It’s been hard on us as it is,” Patterson said while standing
on his front porch. As far as he cares, Health and Welfare can call
the police, he added, if they want him to clean his property.

Dale Patterson remains in prison for the felony conviction.

2555 Alderwood Ave.

There’s little curb appeal to one house on Alderwood Ave.,
located in southwest Twin Falls.

Motorists passing through the barely decade-old subdivision
would notice that, yes, the unoccupied home’s exterior is rather
plain when compared to the house next door, which is already
trimmed with colorful lights and other festive Christmas
decorations. But they certainly wouldn’t guess that the home’s
attached garage was the place where methamphetamine was cooked in a
small shake-n-bake operation.

In February 2010, Nathaniel Thomas’ probation officer stopped by
for a check and found that Thomas was attempting to make meth
because, as he told police, he was tired of having to buy the drug
and wanted to make his own.

Before the end of the year, his wife filed for divorce and his
toddler, found in the home where he failed to make a successful
batch of meth, was taken from him in a custody case. Thomas is
serving a minimum two-year prison term.

Neighbors Brian and Lisa Moore were happy to see Thomas go.

“They were mean from day one,” Brian said.

Lisa added, “I’m glad they’re gone, and I don’t have to worry
about it anymore.”

The Moores were disturbed by the scene of police removing
chemicals such as potassium iodine, rubbing alcohol, gasoline
additive and denatured alcohol from the house next door. They are
further concerned that the house is on Health and Welfare’s list of
unclean properties.

The house has been vacant since August 2010, when it was
foreclosed upon. The Thomas’ couldn’t keep up with the mortgage
payments on the $123,000 home, and in January it was up for
auction.

The house failed to find a buyer. In a legal notice for the
auction that ran in the Times-News, there was no disclosure that
the property was the former site of a drug lab.

There may still be hope for 2555 Alderwood Ave., as Brian Moore
said he would entertain the notion of buying the home cheap and
paying to have it properly cleaned. He would then offer it as a
rental property.

Still, the site’s past lingers.

“It was upsetting,” he said. “This is a good neighborhood.”

528 Fourth Ave. W.

Shaff, her former husband and three children all under age 12,
moved into 528 Fourth Ave. W. less than a year after authorities
seized the illegal lab in the rickety wooden backyard shack.

Gene Bliss and Theresa Newberry had apparently been cooking meth
there frequently, and left empty boxes of cold tablets, gasoline
additive, an electric crock pot, glass tubes and rubber hoses in
their wake, according to the police report of the lab’s
seizure.

Bliss was convicted of trafficking in meth by manufacturing in
2008 and is serving his minimum two-year prison stint. Charges
against Newberry were dropped.

Although Campbell noted a hazardous materials crew cleared the
shack of meth-related materials, he told the Times-News he thought
its cleaning was a done matter and was unaware his rental property
remained on the list.

“Nobody said anything after that,” he said.

Shaff and her family stayed there less than two years, leaving
for other reasons, and now reside on Martin Street near the old
hospital. Campbell said he’s considering tearing the shed down.

• • •

Help might be on the way for Idaho’s 43 unclean former meth
labs, as President Obama recently signed an appropriations bill to
pledge $12.5 million for meth lab cleanups, the Associated Press
reported. It’s expected that much of the money could go to southern
states, as Tennessee led the nation in the number of meth labs
busted last year.

It remains unclear if Idaho will see any money for cleanup
efforts, or how it would be handled by Health and Welfare, leaving
the burden of eliminating the residue of an illegal industry
squarely on the shoulders of property owners.

Bradley Guire may be reached at 735-3380.