A former Port Townsend resident who rented a 31st Street house in 2011 – and then concluded he had become sick because the place was infused with chemicals from earlier methamphetamine manufacturing – has encountered a setback in his effort for relief.

That former renter, Barry Ellis, at first sought help from the Jefferson County Board of Health, which has the power to publicly post a hazard warning on property proven to have had meth activity, and to require landlords to do a thorough cleanup. The County Board of Health turned him down, citing a lack of clear evidence. He then appealed that decision to the Washington State Board of Health. That board, on Nov. 12, denied his appeal, endorsing the earlier decision of the county board to place no restrictions on the property.

Coincidentally (or not, according to Ellis), Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin is both a member of the County Board of Health and the chair of the Washington State Board of Health, to which the appeal was made. Austin, however, recused himself from voting on the matter as a state board member. In addition, Dr. Tom Locke, public health officer for Jefferson and Clallam counties, has been a state leader in drafting a law related to drug-infused housing, and argues that standards are too strict and should be reduced.

“I was expecting this,” said Ellis of the state board’s rejection of his appeal. Ellis says he is likely to appeal to a higher power, federal court. He’s not giving up, he said, because he thinks that the health of unsuspecting renters like himself is on the line.

“They can’t admit liability. I’m already talking with attorneys. You never win against the state in the state court. I have a three-year clock,” noting a three-year statute of limitations to sue the state Board of Health.

Ellis said he could draw a lesson from the state board’s ruling. “I think that what happened is this is a good ol’ boy network, and I think they covered their ass with Locke,” he said.

STARTED WITH 2011 RENTAL

The case is based on Ellis’ complaint about a house at 1507 31st St. in Port Townsend. In his written complaint to the Jefferson County Board of Health, Ellis stated that he and his girlfriend rented that house in April 2011. During the 14 months he was there, “I experienced internal bleeding, two emergency surgeries, numerous medical procedures.” He said his former girlfriend had tried to commit suicide and required medical attention right after moving in.

In his formal complaint to the county, Ellis wrote that a neighbor told Ellis that the house had been used to “cook” methamphetamine. In April 2012, Ellis went to Marjorie Boyd of Jefferson County Public Health to inquire about possible drug use or chemical infusion at the house. He also started submitting open public records requests to the Port Townsend Police Department (PTPD) to find out if there were any incidents at the house investigated by police.

In his testimony before the county health board in March of this year, Ellis said he had contacted the owner of the house, Bent Meyer. Meyer “refused to address the situation, but did tell me to move out immediately,” Ellis said. When Ellis responded that he wanted permission to have the property tested for meth, “I was locked out of the residence without a court order,” he said, so that he could not have the residence tested.

Before being locked out, Ellis said, he removed some items and later had those tested for meth residue. He forwarded the results to Boyd of the county health department. Ellis said the test results showed chemical levels “between two and 26 times the legal limit.” Boyd told him there was nothing she could do to help him, according to Ellis, a conclusion repeated by other county health department staff.

Ellis said he took the matter to the PTPD, where a case file was created. However, the PTPD apparently could not confirm prior drug activity at the house. Without that finding, the county health department again declined to take action.

Ellis did not let it drop. Instead, he said, he pursued the matter by contacting local police, the state Department of Ecology and the Jefferson County Prosecutor’s Office. Ellis’ history shows he is persistent. He said he has been involved in more than 30 lawsuits involving the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, and added that he’s won a number of those.

STATE INVESTIGATION

Ellis appealed to the state Board of Health, calling on that panel to overturn Jefferson County Public Health’s decision against taking action on the house. In a Nov. 12, 2014 memo on the case prepared by state board vice chair Keith Grellner, Grellner said that Ellis’ complaint was reviewed and that three of the four witnesses Ellis cited in his written complaint were interviewed.

Neither the state board investigator nor the Leader was able to get landlord Bent Meyer to return calls.

“There was no evidence found or presented that proves that hazardous chemicals were used to manufacture illegal drugs at 1507 31st St., Port Townsend, Wa.,” Grellner wrote in a conclusion. “There was no evidence found or presented that a law enforcement agency or property owner notified Jefferson County Public Health” that the property was contaminated, he continued.

“The sample results submitted by Mr. Ellis did not provide grounds for Jefferson County Public Health to post the property or conduct further inspections under RCW 64.44 and WAC 246.205,” he added.

And finally, he said that public records requests resulted in no findings or documentation that there was ever a meth lab on the property.

LOCKE: LAWS TOO STRICT

Locke said he is pushing to relax state cleanup laws related to buildings used as drug labs, laws that he helped to write. Locke said the cleanup threshold is so low today that it impacts the supply of public housing. When traces of meth are found in housing projects, Locke said, cleanup crews are “charging tens of thousands of dollars” to do “very destructive cleanups” of homes “when there is no evidence that the amount of meth detected is dangerous.”

It is not a new subject for Locke.

“I felt especially strong about this code because I helped write it,” Locke said last week. In the late 1990s, Locke said, clandestine drug labs were a real problem. “We had several in Jefferson County and hundreds around the state,” he said.

But today, Locke said, meth labs are a much smaller problem, because the market is flooded with cheap meth made in Mexican superlabs. “There’s a very small amount of shake-and-bake,” he said of meth that is made in 2-liter soda bottles. “Meth labs have virtually disappeared, and those that do exist, exist on a very small scale.”

But those strict cleanup laws from a decade ago are still on the books, he said.

What is happening now is that any tiny amount of meth – even from smoking it – can trigger a massive cleanup that involves practically tearing the house apart.

“The point is, the cleanup standard is so low, we’ve been urging the state to raise the cleanup standard,” he said.

Locke is proposing the state raise its cleanup standards from 0.1 micrograms to 1.5 micrograms per 100 square centimeters, which is the level the state of California recommends based on a 2007 study, according to public health department minutes from April 17, 2014.

“Current cleanup protocols call for all drywall, carpeting, appliances and personal possessions to be removed,” state the minutes. “This is expensive and has limited the availability of public housing because units are closed and/or demolished rather than cleaned.”

“The law was not written to compel cleanup of residences where the only thing that has happened is the smoking of meth,” Locke said. He said tiny amounts of meth on surfaces of things, such as floors, aren’t dangerous unless you do something like prepare food on them.

Locke said that at a recent state hearing, even the Peninsula Housing Authority testified that the law, as written, is having an impact on public housing because of the high cost of cleanup. He noted that public housing is already in short supply.

PROTECTING RENTERS

Again, Ellis isn’t buying it.

“By asking to relax these standards, it sets up landlords to be able to move people into contaminated houses without legal recourse,” Ellis said in August. “It sets up renters as second-class citizens.”

“I’m going to sue them over what they have done. It’s discrimination,” he said.

Ellis said he still suffers from his days in that Port Townsend rental home, but he’s moved out to the country and is starting to feel better. He asserts that Locke and county officials are trying to protect their tax base.

“Anyone who owns property here, they give protection to. But some child goes and gets in that house and gets sick, there’s no protection,” Ellis said.