NCJ Number
201630
Date Published
May 2003
Length
135 pages
Annotation
This Environmental Assessment compares the potentional impact of either continuing the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Methamphetamine Initiative or discontinuing the Initiative.
Abstract
DOJ’s COPS Methamphetamine Initiative provides State and local agencies with grant funding to investigate and seize clandestine drug laboratories. These laboratories, which tend to manufacture methamphetamine, contain and are contaminated with dangerous substances requiring hazardous waste clean-up that complies with Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations, among others. Removal of the hazardous waste is the responsibility of the State or local law enforcement agency. As such, the COPS Methamphetamine Initiative provides valuable funds necessary in the removal and clean-up effort. On the other hand, this Environmental Assessment compares the impact of taking no action, described as the “No Action Alternative,” which would result in the discontinuation of the grant program. The No Action Alternative would force State and local jurisdictions to find other sources of funding or discontinue their efforts in the investigation and seizures of clandestine drug laboratories. This assessment provides a summary of each alternative and then offers a description of the RCRA requirements, the DOT regulatory requirements, the fire protection codes, and the DOJ COPS Methamphetamine Initiative policies and procedures. The assessment scenarios involve the management, removal, transportation, and storage of hazardous waste generated in such laboratories. The report further describes the environmental setting for the scenarios for which the environmental consequence analyses were conducted, including single family house environments, multi-unit residential environments, and rural open air settings. The environmental consequences of continuing the DOJ COPS Methamphetamine Initiative are compared to the environmental consequences of discontinuing the initiative. The impact on air quality, water quality, soil quality, human health and safety, children, energy, environmental justice, historic preservation, threatened and endangered species, floodplain management, and farmland protection are all analyzed. Finally, cumulative impacts which are impacts of other actions that may be associated with the environmental consequences are analyzed. Numerous appendices include information about methodology, conditions of the grant award, and the types of activities requested under the grant program.