REDMOND – The scattered remains of what was once a home at 334 Warsaw St. have baked in the summer sun, soaked in spring rains and gathered winter snow for three years.

The four walls and roof are long gone. What endures is threat of pollution from toxic chemicals once used as ingredients for a clandestine drug lab.

The home burned to the ground three years ago after local police raided it in a drug bust.

Since then the property, which encompasses three tax lots, has been a thorn in the side for neighbors, law enforcement and local government officials who want to see 334 Warsaw St. cleaned and, if necessary, decontaminated.

In this case it’s likely that most of the chemicals have dissipated.

However, the possibility of contamination remains until the site is cleaned, said Tom Mitchell, who coordinates the drug cleanup program for the state Department of Health and Human Services.

It’s a problem that Oregonians have become increasingly familiar with in the recent years as the number of methamphetamine lab busts has climbed.

”I think there is no doubt that methamphetamine use and production in Oregon is a serious problem,” said John Horton, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy and former Oregon resident.

The Oregon Attorney General’s Office reports that the state is No. 11 in the nation in terms of the number of drug labs seized per capita.

Last year, Oregon law enforcement officials raided 529 drug labs across the state. The state Attorney General’s Office reports that nine of those labs were found in Deschutes County. Police seized another three in Jefferson County.

That’s a steep increase from just four years earlier when Oregon police raided 245 labs and only one in Deschutes County. Police at that time found no labs in Crook or Jefferson counties.

It was even less of a problem in 1995 when only 49 labs were found across Oregon.

”We saw an explosion in 2001 of meth meth use and meth labs,” said Kevin Neely, spokesman for Attorney General Hardy Myers.

By law, Oregon property owners are responsible for cleaning up the mess left behind when a meth lab is raided. Most property owners comply with the law, using one of 24 state-licensed firms to clean and decontaminate the former labs.

It’s a hardship for owners who are often unaware of the drug activity. They end up paying a cleanup bill which can range between $3,000 to $100,000, said Horton.

But if the home isn’t cleaned properly it can cause serious problems for future occupants. Terry Flora-Turner has seen that first hand.

Flora-Turner, who owns High Desert Property Management in Redmond, recalls how a couple renting from her firm reported a strange smell that they thought was cat urine. High Desert cleaned the carpets but the odor persisted. The couple soon developed respiratory and other health problems, including nose bleeds and nausea.

High Desert later learned that the owner of the Redmond home had failed to properly clean up a drug lab discovered on the property. Flora-Turner reported the violation to police and terminated her contract with the owner. The couple later sued the homeowner over their ordeal, Flora-Turner said.

”It is a serious problem when that kind of drug activity occurs. And there is no excuse for an owner not taking care of it properly, but it is a huge expense,” Flora-Turner said.

In some cases, property owners have opted to demolish properties rather than pay for the full cost of cleanup, said Flora-Turner, who is also the past president of the Central Oregon Rental Owners Association.

Other times, owners have opted to let a property sit idle rather than pay for cleanup.

Currently there are about 500 properties across the state awaiting cleanup, said Mitchell, of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

His office maintains a list of all properties across the state where law enforcement officials have seized a drug lab, usually methamphetamine related.

Owners are prohibited from occupying or renting these properties until they’ve been cleaned by an approved contractor and inspected by the state.

Among the addresses on Mitchell’s list of tainted properties is 334 Warsaw St. The property has been on the list since 1999 when the Central Oregon Drug Enforcement (CODE) Team raided the home and arrested Shonda Marie Burhoop-Lange and Bradley Wayne Lange.

Both pleaded guilty in July 1999 to charges that they sold drugs out of the home. They each served 20 days in the county jail and were sentenced to supervised probation.

So far there have no tests performed to positively determine whether a toxic threat exists on the site. But police found sufficient evidence of meth manufacturing to notify the state Health Department of the potential danger.

While the greatest risks are associated with active labs, former labs can also pose health problems until they are cleaned.

Exposure to chemicals used in the manufacturing process such as benzyl chloride, sodium hydroxide, cyanide, mercuric chloride and sodium metal can cause a variety of health problems. Among the ailments linked to exposure to these chemicals are cancer, nervous system and brain function defects, liver and kidney disease, as well as birth defects and reproductive disorders.

Children in homes with meth labs are particularly vulnerable to exposure. It’s another problem that has become more commonplace in Oregon. In the first half of this year, police removed 50 children from meth lab sites, the Oregon Office of Attorney General reports. Nearly half of those were five years old or younger.

That statistic gives Oregon the dubious distinction of being among the top 10 states in terms of the number of children removed from homes with meth labs, according to the state Department of Justice.

The children of Shonda Burhoop-Lange are among those statistics for 1999.

Kevin Sawyer, a Bend police officer, was the supervisor on the CODE team at the time of the Warsaw bust. He participated in the raid and remembers the squalid conditions that the couple and their young children were living in at the time.

”There was no electricity at that point,” Sawyer said. ”We had to bring in generators to complete the search warrant. They had candles on the floor of the children’s room that were lit. The (drugs) were laying all around. It was a filthy mess.”

There was stale food in the refrigerators and nothing to eat in the cupboards, said Sawyer. Police also found methamphetamine drying in the kitchen and the remnants of a drug lab.

The home was completely consumed in an Oct. 2000 fire. Redmond police listed the cause of the blaze as arson but never filed any charges.

Despite the destruction of the home, state and local officials remain concerned about the possibility of contamination.

”I’ve been dealing with property for the past three or four years,” said Mitchell of the state Department of Health and Human Services.

But so far, no one has been willing to clean the property.

The owner, Marcia K. Heglie, initially denied ownership of the property, which has been put into foreclosure by the county. County records show that Heglie has not paid taxes on the property for five years. She has until September 2004 to pay $3,570 in back taxes before the county takes deed to the property.

Heglie, who last listed an address in Phoenix, Ariz. did not return a phone call seeking comment.

In the meantime, the city has investigated ways of removing the hazard. Redmond planning officials asked contractors to submit cleanup bids on 334 Warsaw St. in May. Planning department records show two firms responded with quotes. One firm stated that it would charge the city $2,000 to perform an initial site review. The other contractor offered to do the entire job for $10,350.

It’s an unusual situation for the city, and one which Redmond officials said they have never found themselves before.

”This is just a single case we have right now,” said City Manager Jo Anne Sutherland. ”But the site needs to be abated. There is a mess there to be cleaned up. And it was brought to our attention. The property owners may do this clean up, but we know it can’t just sit there. There is some liability for everyone.”

If the city chooses to take the lead on the remediation work, it will likely bill Heglie, the owner, or put a lien on the property, said Steve Bryant, city attorney.

Still, officials are hoping it won’t come to that. Bryant said Heglie has been cooperating with the city as of late.

”She was pretty emphatic that if she was the owner, she wanted to get it cleaned up and would take that responsibility,” Bryant said.

Neighbor Jerry Hunt has been living with the mess created by the meth lab and subsequent fire just outside his back door for years.

Hunt said he has tried several times to purchase the property but was unable to agree on a price with Heglie.

”I’d like to see it get cleaned up,” said Hunt, who made a living as a horse jockey and is now retired.

Meanwhile, the state continues to fight an uphill battle when it comes to controlling the spread of methamphetamine use, said Lt. Bob Carpenter, CODE team supervisor for Crook, Jefferson and Deschutes counties.

This year, meth seizures are down in Deschutes County. Three were reported in the first six months of the year. Police also found three labs in Jefferson County and none in Crook County. That doesn’t mean there are not more labs out there, Carpenter said.

New techniques have allowed meth cookers to manufacture the drug in smaller portable labs. Of the labs reported to the state Health Department last year, 28 were found in the trunks of cars, the Office of the Attorney General reports.

Although the vast majority of methamphetamine sold in Oregon, about 95 percent, comes from industrial size operations, referred to as super labs, the new smaller labs make it difficult for law enforcement to control the proliferation of home labs.

”It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to (make meth),” Carpenter said. ”And there is always somebody out there who knows how and is willing to write down a recipe.”

Eric Flowers can be reached at 541-504-2336 or eflowers@bendbulletin.com.