SANTA ROSA -- Enough chemicals to manufacture 300 pounds of methamphetamine powder worth $2.1 million were found at an underground storage site south of Cloverdale Wednesday, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department announced Thursday afternoon.

Sonoma County sheriff's Sgt. Chris Bertoli said a neighbor called after noticing a white plastic bottle sticking out of the ground and located what appeared to be a clandestine laboratory dumpsite while walking in the 26000 block of Asti Road. The rural area is a few miles south of Cloverdale near a vineyard, Bertoli said.

The county's Narcotics Task Force then found chemicals and ingredients used to make methamphetamine covered with dirt and leaves in a trench 20 feet long and three feet deep, Bertoli said.

The ingredients were wrapped in plastic garbage bags to protect them from the weather. The items contained in plastic and metal cans were still in their original cardboard boxes and were probably there a few weeks.

Some of the cans were rusting but were not there before the area last received heavy rain a few weeks ago, Bertoli said. It's believed the actual meth lab is not far away, possibly in the hills above Cloverdale, Bertoli said.

Detectives and Sonoma County Fire Services workers removed approximately 85 pounds of sodium hydroxide, 60 pounds of iodine crystals, 42 gallons of denatured alcohol, 15 gallons of acetone, 15 gallons of an unknown acid, three heating mantles and four 22-liter reaction vessels.

The chemicals were in their original factory sealed containers and no evidence of contamination was visible in the vicinity, Bertoli said. Two key ingredients used to make methamphetamine, ephedrine and red phosphorous, were not found, Bertoli said.

Based on the amount of iodine crystals at the site, the Sheriff's department said the equipment and chemicals could produce 300 pounds of powdered methamphetamine worth $2.1 million, Bertoli said.