Its manufacturing process presents an immediate environmental hazard.
Any remediation is extra.
And the state has cleaned up 60 sites so far this year just in the Southwest region, from Olympia south to Vancouver and the Olympic Peninsula. Most of the environmental problems arise when the cooking is actually taking place. Meth is made by taking ephedrine or super-ephedrine tablets, found in Sudafed and other decongestants, and heating them until the ephedrine is highly concentrated. It takes thousands of common ephedrine tablets to make one pound of meth, according to Aaron Alderson, head of meth lab cleanups at Olympus Environmental in Auburn, the company that holds the Olympus crews take samples at a meth lab before shipping the chemicals to a landfill. Though several other remediation companies have contracts for meth lab cleanups, Olympus is chosen most often, because it has offices located throughout the state.