WATERLOO - When Orlando Winston and his family were looking for a house to buy last year, he knew a few things he wanted.

A good back yard was a must, as was more room for the children.

They found a nice place on Wycombe Street. The woman selling it said her son had lived there and was taking out a loan to buy it, but couldn't keep up the payments.

The price was reasonable, so they jumped at it.

It wasn't until they settled in that neighbors told them their new home used to host a methamphetamine lab.

A list of items drug agents found when they raided it in December 2005 included sulfuric acid, starter fluid and an "unknown liquid."

Even though questions remain about what, if any, long-term hazards are associated with former drug labs, Winston is worried.

"I don't feel comfortable living here, it being a meth lab," Winston said.

Now federal authorities have a new tool to help buyers and renters find out if police found an illegal drug lab in a prospective home.

In December, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency unveiled the National Clandestine Laboratory Register, an admittedly incomplete list of addresses where local authorities discovered drug manufacturing facilities or dumps within the past three years.

DEA officials bill the registry as a tool to protect public health.

"This is a public service. This is the only one-stop-shop in the U.S.," said Steve Robertson, a special agent with DEA public affairs in Washington, D.C.

But it has raised questions about what, if any, long-term hazards are associated with former drug labs.

As with most other states, Iowa doesn't have criteria for what is considered a safe home after police haul away a lab and its ingredients.

"Once the crime scene tape comes down and the site is opened back up, the question I don't think anybody has answered, at least not to our knowledge, is what constitutes a safe living environment 30 days later," said Dale Woolery, associate director of the Iowa Governor's Office of Drug Control Policy. "The second part of that question is what cleanup is required to create that safe environment?"

And while the answers to those questions are pending, some local landowners have disputed their properties' listing on the National Clandestine Lab Register.

"The (drug) task force broke into our house we were renting. As far as I know, they never found anything," said Phyllis Reiter, who owns property on Newell Street listed on the DEA site. "They didn't find a meth lab there."

She and her husband are currently remodeling the home so they can live in it themselves.

Public service

Black Hawk County currently has 17 sites on the DEA register, available to the public at www.dea.gov/seizures/index.html.

Nine are in Waterloo, three in Cedar Falls, and the rest are from Evansdale, La Porte City, Dunkerton and Raymond.

The addresses, including those for rentals, were sent to the DEA by local law enforcement agencies.

The DEA has been collecting locations of drug labs and dump sites for years but only started making the database available last month.

DEA officials said the registry is a public service to help new homeowners ensure the house of their dreams isn't a potential nightmare.

"In a cruel twist of fate, people who have never used or manufactured meth have become some of its hardest-hit victims after unknowingly buying property contaminated by chemicals and waste generated from a meth lab," DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said in a prepared statement.

Winston said he likely wouldn't have bought the house on Wycombe had he known its past.

His family has one child who lives in the home, and they baby-sit as many as four children, he said. After moving in, everyone got a little sick, he said. But it wasn't clear if it was related to the drug lab.

They have since changed the carpet and done other housecleaning.

No criteria

Iowa doesn't have a process to determine if a home is safe following a meth lab seizure.

Narcotics officers - often clad in hazardous materials suits and breathing through respirators - remove, catalog and dispose of the manufacturing equipment and neutralize any dangerous chemicals at the scene.

But there is nothing to determine if residents are safe from any long-term threats after that, in part because there are no studies on whether hazards linger.

Without any facts, health officials have no way to set standards.

"Nobody has told us what a safe level is," said Kevin Teale, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Public Health. "Short of that, what do you say?"

The state health department does post recommendations for cleaning up former labs at its Web site at www.idph.state.ia.us/eh/common/pdf/hseess/meth_lab_cleanup.pdf.

But the speculation, Woolery said, ranges from "you can't do anything to clean it up" to "you really don't have to do much other than open the windows and air it out, and everything evaporates."

Not knowing puts government officials in a precarious position.

"We value the health and safety of the public foremost. Having said that, it's not a good thing to overreact and start condemning properties research may later show are OK," Woolery said.

States like Oregon and Arizona have adopted better-safe-than-sorry approach, setting requirements for cleanup of residual contamination in labs that produce methamphetamine, ecstasy and LSD.

Arizona gives the property owner 12 months to have the house cleaned by a drug lab remediation firm. If they don't, the government hires the firm and places a lien on the address to cover the cost.

While the cleanup is pending, the owner has to notify any potential buyer or renter of the former lab.

But most states, like Iowa, have opted for a wait-and-see approach.

They are awaiting the outcome of an act to fund a federal study on the long-term dangers of former meth labs and create national cleanup standards, Woolery said.

The bill, named the Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act, hasn't been signed into law. It was referred to the Senate's Committee on Environment and Public Works in November 1995 where it has remained ever since.

In the meantime, about the only thing officials have is a study by the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colo.

The study found extremely high and potentially deadly levels of hydrogen chloride, anhydrous ammonia and iodine produced during meth manufacturing. They also discovered high levels of methamphetamine distributed throughout residences where meth was manufactured.

But the contamination was only measured for a 24-hour window after the drug was made, said William Allstetter, a spokesman for National Jewish.

The center is seeking funding to conduct further studies into the long-term hazards, he said.

Three year list

DEA officials are the first to admit the National Clandestine Laboratory Register has its flaws.

The register lists six Black Hawk County addresses for labs found in 2005. But Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement statistics show the county had 69 lab seizures that year.

The register's disclaimer said the DEA doesn't guarantee accuracy for those on the list and asks readers to double check the information with local law enforcement. There is also an e-mail address to report erroneous information,

The register only goes back three years. This time frame is to continue, so addresses will be taken off the register when they become three years old, Robertson said.

Sherry Wyant was surprised to find a rental house she owns on Fletcher Avenue on the list.

"I would think that our city officials should contact the people who own the home," she said. "We were absolutely not aware of it."

She noted the property always passes regular rental inspections conducted by the Waterloo Fire Department.

Lauretta Renslow, who owns a rental house on Plymouth Avenue, said the register unfairly targets the property owners.

"To me, this is outrageous," Renslow said.

She knew there was an arrest associated with the address, but said it was never proven the drug had been cooked on her property.

"If there were chemical hazards there, they would have closed the place down until they were taken care of," she said.

Court records state police noticed a strong odor coming from a shed behind the house in June. Inside they located starter fluid, anhydrous ammonia, lithium batteries and "methamphetamine sludge" in the shed, records state.

DEA officials will consider taking a property off the list if there is proof the place has been cleaned and deemed hazard-free by law enforcement or health officials, which places owners in a bind because there are no standards set by the state of Iowa.

Since the register started in December, one address - a place in Texas - has been removed, Robertson said.

Contact Jeff Reinitz at (319) 291-1578 or jeff.reinitz@wcfcourier.com.