Nye County could only submit one request for a bill draft before the Nevada Legislature in the 2009 session.

There's nothing too controversial this time, unlike the 2007 session when state legislators approved a county request for legislation allowing them to increase the sales tax a half-percent or create a county water district.

This time, the county wanted a bill asking for the state Board of Health to set regulations on remediating homes formerly used as methamphetamine labs.

The legislation would give county commissioners the authority to abate a chronic nuisance, seek closure of the property and penalize the owner. A chronic nuisance includes buildings used for selling, storing, keeping or manufacturing a controlled substance. It allows the county or board of health to close a property deemed a chronic nuisance and place a lien against the owner.

A fiscal note attached to the bill mentions it could have an impact on the state budget, as it prescribes jail time.

The legislation is geared toward funding under the Brownfields program, which targets cleanups of contaminated industrial properties. Brownfields money was formerly used for cleaning up the Pink Motel in Tonopah and the Tonopah Airport.

Nye County recently received a $200,000 grant for job training under the Brownfields Program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced more money is available under the Brownfields program.

"Essentially this bill will allow Nye County to make greater use of Brownfields funding by providing guidance to law enforcement as it relates to cleanup measures on multiple levels," Commissioner Joni Eastley said in testifying for Senate Bill 60 before the Senate Health and Education Committee Monday.

The committee held the first reading on the bill without taking action.

Scott Jackson, chief of the investigative division for the Nevada Department of Public Safety, said a friendly amendment was added to the bill to include the cleanup of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive materials, an attempt to address terrorism or any other law enforcement concerns that may arise.

Wes Henderson from the Nevada Association of Counties and Glenn Savage, environmental health director for the Southern Nevada Health District, went on record supporting the bill.

"The health district would like to be assured in this bill that we would have the opportunity to perform regulations that may concern any inspection costs," Savage said. "We have worked in the past on some of these meth lab cleanups. Sometimes they're costly, they cost tens of thousands of dollars. That's a big fee for county government. We want to make sure we have an opportunity to seek those legal remedies through the court system if necessary."

Asked for comment, Nye County Emergency Services Director Brent Jones said they had two big meth labs to clean up in the last year. One cost the county $4,000 for disposal of the chemicals and to have a contractor take samples from the home to see if it's habitable.

Eileen Christensen, principal scientist with BEC Environmental Inc., a Nye County contractor, said Nye County is taking the lead on seeking guidelines over meth lab cleanups.

"This all stemmed from the Brownfields program, but it was because one of our Brownfields sites was a methamphetamine lab. When we tried to get a state agency to provide us with guidance on what constitutes cleanup standards, when does it become safe for someone to occupy this property, nobody had any," Christensen said.

"Without that, how do you have any assurance that the residents of a former meth lab that the property is safe to inhabit?" she asked.

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo said he wishes the legislation was broader to include abating things like "marijuana grow houses."

"Over the last couple years we've had three methamphetamine labs, and they're not really the full-blown labs we used to get. They have the chemicals and the assets to make methamphetamine, not to the quantity years ago," DeMeo said.

"We had 10 or more marijuana groves that have chemicals in it probably just as deadly as methamphetamine. Right now the biggest issue we're dealing with is the marijuana growers. We have to treat it as a hazmat incident," he said.

One of the 10 houses where marijuana was being grown in the Pahrump area was a sophisticated operation with a nursery where sheriff's deputies seized $6.5 million worth of pot, DeMeo said.