The dangers of ammonia theft

By Scott North

Herald Writer

ARLINGTON — When ammonia fumes began drifting from a frozen vegetable packing plant here Sunday, it was the stuff of nightmares for those who monitor the odd convergence of crime and caustic chemicals in Snohomish County.

Officials suspect the leak at the Twin City Foods plant was caused by somebody trying to steal anhydrous ammonia, a commercial refrigerant drug cooks use to manufacture the powerful stimulant methamphetamine.

In all, about 1,500 people were evacuated from neighborhoods and the downtown business core near the plant. Just three showed possible effects from the fumes, and only two were hospitalized. They were treated and released from Cascade Valley Hospital.

"The evacuation went very well," said Kristin Banfield, Arlington city administrator. "It is just amazing to me that people were so cooperative."

And lucky.

Anhydrous ammonia can cause chemical burns, particularly to lungs. The meth cookers not only risked their lives and the health of others, they also potentially put jobs at risk, said Scott Wyatt, owner of Wyatt Refrigeration in Everett, which services refrigeration units around the Northwest.

Wyatt worries that ammonia-related injuries or deaths brought about by a bungled theft could trigger public pressure to close packing plants.

"One big leak, and it is going to be irrelevant how it happened, or how it got there," he said.

Ammonia theft has been a growing problem here for several years, said Pat Slack, commander of the Snohomish County Drug Task Force.

"We continue to have thefts from a variety of places. Every week we hear about it," he said.

Meth manufacturers use anhydrous ammonia as part of their recipe to cook up the drug. Most can’t legally obtain it, so they resort to theft.

Businesses around the county have been investing heavily in fencing, surveillance cameras, infrared sensors, motion detectors and other equipment designed to thwart ammonia theft, Wyatt said.

They also are paying out each time a theft is discovered, because technicians must be brought in to carefully check the system to ensure it is still safe to operate, Wyatt said.

Slack said that drug detectives and prosecutors have scored some important victories by targeting known meth cooks and sending the offenders to prison for as long as possible.

He’s heard it is much harder to steal ammonia here, and it is now common for meth cooks to head to Eastern Washington to pilfer a tank of the gas.

That just presents another risk, because the ammonia is now being transported in cars, across mountain passes, without any safety equipment to keep it from being released, Slack said.

The cooks "don’t care if everybody dies as long as they get another batch of meth," Slack said.

Meth lab busts are actually down a bit from the same time last year, Slack said.

That’s not the case for meth-related spills and chemical cleanups in the county. The state Department of Ecology last year reported nearly 70 cleanups here, and the county’s performance in the first three months was a virtual mirror image for the same period in 2001.

Department of Ecology spokesman Larry Altose said ammonia is being stolen from a wide variety of places, including railroad tank cars. Ecology officials leave it up to law officers to investigate the thefts, but they have little doubt why they occur.

The thieves "are not trying to start clandestine ice rinks," Altose said.

Arlington police are working with the drug task force in investigating Sunday’s leak, Banfield said.

There have been numerous tips and "we are devoting a lot of resources," she said.

The people who caused the leak could face an array of charges, from burglary to theft and malicious mischief.

You can call Herald Writer Scott North at 425-339-3431 or send e-mail to north@heraldnet.com.

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