Arkansas
Clandestine Laboratory Cleanup (Meth Lab)
Arkansas's Clandestine Laboratory Cleanup (Meth Lab) program deals with properties contaminated by the illegal making of controlled substances. Act 864 of 2007 set it up: the Act created a certification program for the people who inspect, sample, clean up and remove contaminated material at such properties, requires that the Division of Environmental Quality (DEQ) be told when a clandestine laboratory is found, and has DEQ keep a list of these properties. The program is housed in the Department of Energy and Environment's Emergency Management Services, and that office's page says the Department manages the database of contaminated properties and certifies cleanup contractors.
In a Phase I ESA
ASTM E1527-21 does not name lists of drug laboratory sites among its standard record sources. A listing still matters, because DEQ's FAQ says no one may live in a property under a Notice of Removal until it is found free of meth contamination. Four Arkansas details shape how to read the list.
- How a property gets on the list. DEQ's FAQ says local law enforcement seizes the lab, posts a Notice of Removal placard, and completes an El Paso Information Center (EPIC) report form with a copy to the Arkansas Crime Information Center (ACIC), which passes the relevant parts to DEQ, and DEQ then lists the property. The list page says each property came to DEQ through a law enforcement agency's complaint or report, and that the Department has found reasonable evidence that it is contaminated.
- No one may move in until it is cleared. Until the property is tested and found clean, only the owner, the owner's certified contractor, law enforcement and DEQ inspectors may enter. DEQ's FAQ says that entering to reoccupy the property, or removing or disturbing the posted notice, before DEQ certifies it as decontaminated is a Class B misdemeanor under Arkansas Code § 8-7-1405(7)(D) and (E).
- Cleanup is measured against state standards. Where testing finds meth above 0.05 µg/100cm², a certified Clandestine Laboratory Remediation Contractor must clean the affected areas to the Clandestine Laboratory Remediation Cleanup Standards, sample again and send DEQ a final report. On approval, DEQ sends a letter of No Further Action to the owner, the contractor and the local law enforcement agency. The FAQ says the standards apply only to projects reported after May 1, 2008. A property too costly to clean may be razed, with a certified contractor still handling the paperwork for the debris.
- The record does not last. The list page says a property comes off the list ten days after DEQ finds it decontaminated, and the Cleared Properties page says the properties it posts have been tested or decontaminated and come off the contaminated list ten days from posting; its list loads by script and was not in the copy this handbook saved. DEQ's FAQ says that after removal DEQ destroys its records of the property and its cleanup, including its own copy of the cleanup letter, citing Ark. Code §§ 8-7-1404 and 8-7-1406(b); another answer on the same page cites § 8-7-406(b). So the absence of a listing today does not show that a property never held a lab, and DEQ may hold no file on an old one. Ask the owner whether they hold a No Further Action letter.
Where to look a site up
- DEQ's Methamphetamine Contaminated Properties page is a search by county, city and ZIP code. The page says leaving every field blank, or choosing no county restriction, returns the whole state list.
- The Cleared Properties page.
- MethViewer, a map that DEQ says shows the meth-contaminated properties on record with ACIC. This handbook did not open it.
- The program's page names a coordinator; its footer gives 501-682-0744, which DEQ's Contact Us page calls the E&E main switchboard, and its address at 5301 Northshore Drive, North Little Rock.
Getting the file
For a property still on the list, DEQ takes Freedom of Information Act requests by email at EE.FOIA@arkansas.gov; see Records Management and FOIA requests. For a property already removed, DEQ's FAQ says that once ten calendar days have passed after the cleanup letter was mailed, DEQ will no longer have any record of the property or its cleanup.
Sources
Arkansas Division of Environmental Quality pages, read October 13, 2026, no modified date shown: