DENVER — Libraries in Boulder, Englewood, Arvada and Littleton have closed their doors over the past several months because of meth contamination in spaces like the public restrooms.
The main library in Boulder was able to reopen after a nearly three-week closure.
Meantime the libraries in Englewood, Arvada and Littleton remain closed.
The recent awareness surrounding testing for meth in public spaces is part of the reason why Peter Riley, the owner of Crystal Clean Decontamination, says he's as busy as ever.
"We're pretty busy," Riley said. "We're usually two to six weeks out on just mostly residential."
Riley started his decontamination business years ago. At first, he was mainly tackling biohazard cleanups. He said that began changing a few years ago.
"We pretty much haven't done a biohazard job in four or five years that wasn't associated with a meth decontamination," he said.
The day Denver7 joined Riley and his team, they were in the final phase of cleaning an apartment unit.
"As much as I would like them to be a nice simple puzzle every time, they're not," he said. "This particular job, this is day four for us on this job and it's only part of the property that we had to deal with. (A) single family house usually could take us from seven to 14 days to 21 days, depending on if the attic is involved or the crawlspace is involved, if it has textured ceilings. It can go even longer and that's just the initial cleaning."
During a cleaning, Riley and his crew are tasked with cleaning out any debris left behind, vacuuming, even cleaning the walls and floors of the space.
After Riley and his team are finished with the decontamination, the next step is to have a licensed company do the testing of the space once again.
Riley said the state of Colorado has a threshold for the tests, and they must come below a certain point.
"It's 0.5 micrograms per 100 square centimeters, which is like four inches by four inches, a half of a millionth of a dime in that space," he said.
In recent years Riley and his crew have also had to start carrying Narcan with them. He said they're all trained in using it and have to be careful when they decontaminate a space, even with their PPE on.
