Just like every other Fraser Valley city, Abbotsford has been afflicted by a plague of grow-ops. But in 2005 this city took a unique approach to solving the problem.

City hall developed the Grow Op Pilot Public Safety Project, to best use the authority of the municipality to start whittling away at the estimated 700 marijuana growing operations in the city.

After a 90-day trial, the city decided that the program was so effective that it should triple in size. After that, nine city employees took to the streets, armed with public tips and heat sensing equipment, to find the houses that contain marijuana cultivation sites.

Once grow-ops are found, the city can use its Controlled Substance Property Bylaw to shut off the water supply to the house, thus making the hydroponic operation inside unviable. The city can also prohibit anyone living in the building while it is deemed to be in an unsafe state.

Service costs to dismantle a grow-op are charged back to the property owner, regardless of whether he or she claims to have not been the grower. The owner could also be charged for inspector visits and ensuring that a property is brought back to a state where it passes all building codes. The program does not cost the taxpayers, because associated costs are billed back to the perpetrators.

"The message is this," warned Mayor Mary Reeves in announcing the program being made permanent, "if you are thinking of having a grow-op in your house, you might not want to do it in Abbotsford."

Meth labs were more in evidence during the past year, and Abbotsford made the national news when police busted a giant lab on Lefeuvre Road. It was capable of producing 12 kilograms, worth as much as $1.2 million on the street, every two days. Police seized $2.5 million worth of meth in the bust.

The Health Canada chemist who helped dismantle the operation said it as the biggest he had seen in 31 years.