Old meth lab poisons dream home in Indiana

October 24, 2009 - The headaches, muscle aches and breathing problems began shortly after she moved in, but Julie McCoy Sabatino was slow to blame her house for making her sick.

She was shocked to realize she should: Methamphetamines had been produced in the house, just months before she bought it.

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Meth Lab Disclosures - Homebuyers Need to Know

August 10, 2009 - What if you buy your dream home only to discover it used to be a meth house? It's something you'd expect to be told beforehand, but there's no law in Illinois requiring the seller to inform you now legislation could change that.

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Meth lab pollution haunts Oklahoma homebuyers

August 2, 2009 - Darla Hugaboom’s home on five acres north of Arcadia is spacious, clean, quiet and safe. But it came with a dirty past.

Police raided the house in 2004 and arrested the then-owner on drug complaints. They found more than 440 pounds of chemicals used to make methamphetamine and a once beautiful home in a filthy state of neglect.

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Drinking water contamination in Crestwood, Illinois

April 19, 2009 - For more than two decades, the 11,000 or so residents in this working-class community unknowingly drank tap water contaminated with toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems, a Tribune investigation found.

As village officials were building a national reputation for pinching pennies, and sending out fliers proclaiming Crestwood water was "Good to taste but not to waste!," state and village records obtained by the newspaper show they secretly were drawing water from a contaminated well, apparently to save money.

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Indiana property owners foot bill for meth lab cleanups

April 4, 2009 - Indiana's methamphetamine epidemic is leaving property owners stuck with the cleanup bill long after the meth labs have been dismantled by police.

An Indiana law that took effect two years ago says the cost of cleanup falls to property owners even though they likely had nothing to do with cooking the illegal drug.

That tab, said Phil Ball of Aegis Environmental Inc. in Greenwood, can run anywhere from $5,000 to $35,000.

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Utah Bill to require meth contamination disclosure to buyers, renters

March 26, 2009 -
In hindsight, HB404 should have been in place years ago, said Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, one of the bill's sponsors.

"We have 12 cops who are now dead who went into those homes not knowing the risk," Buttars said, noting that scores more are sick.

Under HB404, now awaiting the governor's signature, property owners would be required to disclose to potential buyers or renters if a structure was contaminated by meth. Enforcement would be conducted through a civil lawsuit.

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The federal agency charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites often obscures or overlooks potential health hazards

March 11, 2009 - The federal agency charged with protecting the public near toxic pollution sites often obscures or overlooks potential health hazards, uses inadequate analysis and fails to zero in on toxic culprits, congressional investigators and scientists say.

A House investigative report says officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry "deny, delay, minimize, trivialize or ignore legitimate health concerns."

"Time and time again ATSDR appears to avoid clearly and directly confronting the most obvious toxic culprits that harm the health of local communities throughout the nation," said the report from the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee.

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Toxic leak upsets Beachwood California homeowners

January 6, 2009 -

When Debra Fenner and her husband bought their Beachwood-area home in the Summit Meadows development in September, there were some things they didn't know.

They said they were not told, for instance, that Ranchwood Homes, which built their house, was being sued over polluted floodwater as part of a class-action lawsuit in a Fresno federal court.

Nor were they told, they said, of the toxic leak under the neighborhood caused by a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. (Merck's lawyers have argued that although there was pollution of the water by its subsidiary, there's no evidence anyone got sick from it.)

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Contamination from meth labs

November 12, 2008 - It could be happening right next door, and you might never realize it.

Methamphetamine use is a problem we've been dealing with for years now, but the bigger problem may be meth labs. New methods allow meth labs to pop up anywhere and disappear overnight, and what gets left behind is a major health hazard.

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Nevada residents Taking Chemical Cleanup Into Their Own Hands

October 17, 2008 - It's a potentially dangerous chemical living right underneath dozens of homes, and so far no one responsible has cleaned it up. For years, Eyewitness News has been following the case of that plume in the Paradise Palms neighborhood. Friday, neighbors decided to take control of the fight.

The state says there are chemicals in the groundwater that could cause liver and kidney damage. The neighbors say their property values have bottomed out and the people responsible are either nowhere to be found, or they're pointing fingers at everyone else.

"You can't smell it, you can't touch it, you can't taste it, you can't feel it," said Pete Voggenthaler.

He's talking about perchloroethylene, or PCE, the human-created chemical that has seeped into the groundwater for at least eight years. Once it evaporates it becomes a vapor that get inside people's homes, and it got there from Al Phillips Cleaners, now bankrupt and bulldozed.

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Are you living in a former meth lab?

October 12, 2008 - Jason Dowdell and Michelle DiLorenzo thought the three-bedroom ranch along a quiet, winding Jefferson County road would be the perfect place to start their life together.

They envisioned a nursery in one bedroom. Toys in the backyard. Perennials in the planters.

But all that was put on hold two years later when they learned the home was contaminated with enough methamphetamine residue to be condemned in more than a dozen states.

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Are You Living In An Old Meth Lab?

September 11, 2008 - Local 2 Investigates uncovered a hidden danger lurking in dozens of homes and apartments: old meth labs shut down by law enforcement but never fully cleaned.

Most of us would never think of moving into a home that was once a meth lab. Local 2 Investigates found people moving into these homes all over Houston and the surrounding counties -- they just don't know it.

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W. Chicago homeowner sues seller, agent over contamination

August 26, 2008 - Owners of a West Chicago house are suing their sellers, a real estate agent and her company, alleging they failed to disclose that the home was contaminated with radioactive thorium.

The 13-count lawsuit alleges fraud, misrepresentation, negligence and claims the property at 233 W. Stimmel St. is responsible for the deaths of three family dogs and the lingering respiratory illness to one of the owners.

At the heart of the suit is a portion of the sale contract that states the seller had no knowledge of "any hazardous waste on the real estate."

Sandy Riess said the sellers never disclosed that the property had undergone some thorium remediation, that it was located on a federal Superfund site or that the previous owners refused to have the land tested for radiation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Are Torrance, California area homes too toxic for buyers?

July 12, 2008 - Despite having had her home on the market since March and repeatedly slashing the price, few would-be buyers gave the house a look, even with the renovated kitchen and new hardwood floors she had installed, Speiler said.

The reason, she believes, is the soil contaminated with byproducts from gasoline production discovered last fall in the neighborhood. Even though no chemicals were found on her property, the discovery has tarred the entire area, prompting potential purchasers to look elsewhere in what has become a buyers' market, she said.

"I truly believe it is the soil contamination," she said, adding her real estate agent cited that as one reason it was taking so long to sell.

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Florida State Regulators Knew About Toxic Plume at Least 9 Years Ago, Records Show

May 21, 2008 - ST. PETERSBURG - State regulators knew a toxic plume of industrial waste was migrating from a defense plant toward the Azalea neighborhood at least nine years ago, newly obtained records show.

By 2001, the pollution problem had concerned a Florida Department of Environmental Protection staff member enough that he prepared a letter for the agency's district director, Deborah Getzoff.

The letter instructed Raytheon Network Centric Systems, owner of the plant at 1501 72nd St. N., to reassess the risk to the public and to notify neighbors with irrigation wells.

It was never sent.

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Delaware Legislators express concern after eight cancer clusters discovered

April 27, 2008 - One cluster zone is centered in the industrial Newport-Marshallton area represented by Gilligan, a Democrat from Sherwood Park.

Though cancer can be caused by multiple factors, such as tobacco, poor nutrition and a sedentary lifestyle -- Gilligan is convinced pollution has played a major role in people contracting cancer at high rates -- in his family and across Delaware.

"The next step we need to take is, first of all, make polluters clean up what needs to be cleaned up," Gilligan said. "God only knows what is buried here. People also have to be alerted about this so they can be tested. In some cases, they may even want to move. You aren't going to raise kids here if you think they're at risk."

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Is Raytheon site poisoning Florida neighborhood?

April 19, 2008 - An underground plume of toxic waste is migrating toward Boca Ciega Bay, causing alarm in residential neighborhoods west of the Tyrone area.

Numerous residents worried about contamination, health risks and property values have filed two class-action lawsuits against Raytheon Co., owner of the site where the contamination was first discovered.

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Contamination rousts a family, may cost town in Manchester MA

April 23, 2008 - Following the discovery of high levels of chromium, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and other chemicals in the soil, the state Department of Environmental Protection is insisting that the site be cleaned, and the Gesners have been left paying for a house that they dare not live in and cannot sell.

"We'd like to see some assessment on neighboring properties, as well," said Ed Coletta, a spokesman for the state agency. He added that both the town and the house's previous owner were sent letters this month indicating that they may be responsible for the contaminated land. "Eventually, they're going to have do some cleanup work there."

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Couple sues Chevron over property oil contamination in San Luis Obispo California

April 11, 2008 - A pipeline under the land had leaked years ago, unbeknownst to the new landowners.

The suit alleges that Voisinet’s two lots on the northeastern end of San Luis Drive were tainted more than 25 years ago when a construction worker broke a Union Oil Co. of California pipeline.

According to the lawsuit, the company never adequately cleaned up the pollution and then allowed the lots to be sold for residential development without disclosing that the land was still contaminated.

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Soil, oil spell trouble for home sellers

April 7, 2008 - In December soil contaminated with gasoline products was discovered in the neighborhood that's adjacent the huge ExxonMobil Torrance Refinery - although not on Nixon's property.

Still, the proximity to a potentially major environmental problem was enough to further dissuade already jittery lenders and would-be buyers from consummating any deal for the property in a declining market.

"I've had seven offers in the past three months and they've fallen out of escrow because of this one thing," said Cynthia Kortcamp, the Re/Max Beach Cities agent with the listing.

"This property should have been sold, but it's not sold because of the issues, so poor Julie reduces, reduces, reduces," she added. "We're down to $386,000. - You cannot buy a property on a lot anywhere in Torrance for this price. It's just frustrating. I told Julie I want to take my (for sale) sign off (the property). There's pretty much nothing I can do."

"This is a nightmare," she said. "It's a tragedy for everybody on that street. I'm lucky. I have another place to live. Those people don't."

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