Drug ‘superlabs’ leave a toxic mess. Some say B.C.’s cleanup rules are a mess, too [Video]

For 14 years, Dean May, who co-owns Calgary-based Mayken Hazmat Solutions, has been cleaning the mess left behind by drug labs in Western Canada after police are done with the scene.

As clandestine drug labs become larger and more complex, so does the toxic mess they leave behind and the tools required to clean them up, creating expensive and dangerous situations for both people and the environment.

In B.C., the RCMP say they’ve spent millions over the last five years disposing of chemicals found in labs, but the rest of the hefty cleanup bill is often left to property owners who call private companies like May’s.

B.C.’s real estate association says consistent provincewide rules are needed for how to remediate properties back to being livable.

WATCH | Drug ‘superlab’ busted in B.C. Interior: Police in British Columbia say they’ve dismantled the ‘largest, most sophisticated drug superlab’ in Canadian history, confiscating 89 guns and hundreds of kilograms of drugs. …