Yesterday we blogged about home buyers being advised to have drug testing carried out on their properties prior to purchase: to detect houses that have been contaminated by manufacture of the drug P.
Today the Manawatu Standard has used the Official Information Act to obtain Horizons Regional Council‘s database of Hazardous Activities and Industries List and contaminated sites, which is down on 2009’s list of from around 350 to 300 sites.
Among the 330 contaminated sites listed are at least 8 P Labs, with the remainder comprising petrol stations, landfills and industries such as timber treatment mills and drycleaners, most of which aren’t health risks.
Unlike the P labs.
According to the Standard, the P sites include
- Ferndale Pl residence in Feilding – raided by police in November after they suspected it was being used to house the manufacture of methamphetamine.
- Another site in Feilding
- Two sites in Palmerston North
- one in Taumaranui
- one in Owhango
- one in Marton
- and one near Shannon.
Unfortunately the paper held back from naming the exact locations, so the public are none the wiser. Read more on the Standard’s website
Related Story
Charges after P, kids found in house, November 2010, NZ Herald:
“Two men and a woman have been charged after a police drugs raid yesterday on a suspected drug house in Manawatu where three pre-school children were also found.
More than $40,000 in cash, a small number of point bags of methamphetamine, cannabis, scales and documentation indicative of drug dealing were recovered during the raid on the Ferndale Place, Feilding, house, police said.
A 26-year-old Northland man, 23-year-old Hamilton woman and a 45-year-old Feilding man were arrested and charged with offences ranging from conspiring to supply methamphetamine, possession for its supply, possession of material for its manufacture…”
E2NZ.org 
Thanks for the information Peaches, we’re going to include it in the main body of the blog. Its useful for readers to know what LIMs don’t cover and how deleterious to health living in an ex-meth house can be.
Beware, you would think the LIM report would cover contamination of the sort that makes people extremely ill, but it does not. Read about this woman’s dream house!
http://www.bayofplentytimes.co.nz/local/news/my-dream-home-was-a-p-lab/3924778/
“It was not until much later she learned a police clandestine lab contamination letter had been issued the previous year. Her LIM report did not reveal any contamination or hazardous substance issues at the property […] In what Lisa described as a “last-ditch effort” to establish the cause of her illness, she decided to have her property tested by a forensic agency. “They came and shut up the house that day. “The level of contamination was that high”. The woman could not find a doctor who could identify her illness. Insurance companies do not pay for homes contaminated with methamphetamine to be fixed.
“I will never buy another home without having a minimum of a drug swab test done by a reputable agency,” she said.
Don’t trust the LIM. Real estate agents point buyers to particular assessors they *know* will rubberstamp homes. I knew of one assessor who was avoided by local real estate agents because he would not approve any homes that were not earthquake safe, just because earthquakes were not frequent enough in that region to merit holding up the money!