Buried Truth
The book that changed how New Zealand thinks about methamphetamine, property risk, and the testing industry.
Buried
Truth
Envirocheck
"The methamphetamine testing industry in New Zealand needs an honest reckoning — and this book provides it."
Buried Truth is the book behind the Envirocheck approach to property risk intelligence. Written from years of field experience testing thousands of New Zealand properties, it examines the science, the industry, the regional patterns, and the human stories that sit behind the growing problem of methamphetamine contamination in residential properties.
It is not a technical manual. It is an honest account of what independent testing has revealed — about contamination, about the testing industry itself, and about what property owners actually need to know to protect themselves.
"Property risk isn't just tested. It's managed. And you can't manage what you don't understand."
— Buried Truth
Todd Sheppard
Buried Truth was written by Todd Sheppard, founder of Envirocheck, from years of field experience testing properties across New Zealand. Learn more about the author and the work behind the book.
Key Insights From Buried Truth
Why the Testing Method Matters as Much as the Result
Buried Truth examines how oversampling, inconsistent methodology, and the absence of sampling protocols can produce results that create unnecessary costs and poor decisions — not because of contamination, but because of the way testing was conducted.
The Cost of Testing and Remediating From the Same Company
One of the central arguments in Buried Truth is the structural conflict of interest that exists when the company that tests a property also profits from its remediation. The book documents multiple cases where this relationship influenced outcomes in ways that were not in the property owner's interest.
What Wastewater Data Reveals About Regional Risk
Using publicly available wastewater monitoring data and field observations across New Zealand, Buried Truth builds a picture of how methamphetamine activity patterns differ significantly by region — and what this means for property owners and managers in different areas.
What Property Owners Don't Know About Their Own Properties
The book explores the significant gap between what property owners believe about their properties and what may actually be true — particularly in relation to contamination events that were never tested, documented, or disclosed.
The Families Behind the Properties
Buried Truth does not treat contamination as a purely technical issue. It documents the human impact — on families living in contaminated properties, on landlords facing unexpected costs, and on communities dealing with the broader consequences of methamphetamine.
The Case for Independent Testing
A recurring theme in Buried Truth is that the methamphetamine testing industry in New Zealand lacks the structural independence that would benefit property owners. The book makes a detailed case for why independence — not just competence — matters in testing.