Shutdown of Farmland fertilizer plant costing more jobs in Lawrence

A year-long production shutdown at Lawrence’s Farmland Nitrogen Fertilizer plant is costing the community another 15 jobs.

An official with BOC Gases confirmed Wednesday the company is in the process of phasing out its Lawrence operations. The Murray Hill, N.J.-based company already has released or reassigned about 15 truck drivers and production workers.

The plant, which is located on the east end of the Farmland facility, received the majority of its work from the fertilizer plant.

“Our operations are completely intertwined with Farmland,” Pete Gavigan, a representative for BOC, said. “When they stopped producing, it left us with very few other options.”

BOC was in the business of capturing carbon dioxide gases emitted from the fertilizer plant. BOC then purified the gases and sold the carbon dioxide to industries, such as beverage producers and refrigeration companies.

A struggling fertilizer market, however, forced Farmland to stop production at the plant, just east of Lawrence on Kansas Highway 10, in May 2001. BOC was able to keep its operations open, in large part, because the facility is on a rail spur and was able to have carbon dioxide shipped in from other locations to be purified.

But Gavigan said without the massive amounts of carbon dioxide generated at the fertilizer plant, it was no longer feasible to continue operations in Lawrence. Company officials began reducing work force levels “several months” ago at the plant. Currently, the company has two to three employees at the facility. Gavigan said it is uncertain how much longer it would continue to work out of Lawrence.

The company cut about 10 truck driver positions and five production people at the Lawrence facility. All workers were offered the chance to relocate to another BOC facility, but the closest facility to Lawrence is in Coffeyville, Gavigan said. He said he did not know how many Lawrence employees transferred. Attempts to reach Lawrence operations manager Ed Phlegar for more details were unsuccessful.

Gavigan said employees who did not accept a new position with the company were offered severance packages.

BOC is not phasing out the operations in a manner that would prevent the company from re-establishing operations if production were to begin again at the Farmland plant.

“I guess we would like to hold out hope like everybody else,” Gavigan said. “If they were to restart the plant we think it would be worth our time to restart our site as well. But we’ve received no indications that will happen anytime soon.”

Dick Lind, Lawrence plant manager for Farmland, said the company doesn’t have any plans to resume production.

“The fertilizer business has picked up some, but not enough to help us out here,” Lind said. “We still think there has to be a change in the entire fertilizer industry and we’ve haven’t seen signs of that.”

In addition to its Lawrence plant, Farmland has idled a fertilizer plant in Pollack, La., and a facility in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Lind said. Other fertilizer companies also have reduced fertilizer production, in part, due to increased competition from foreign competitors and weakened demand.

When Farmland stopped production last May, it reduced its work force levels by about 150 people. The plant currently has 17 employees. Lind said the plant is being used as a storage facility, with fertilizer products being shipped in from Farmland’s Coffeyville plant.

The Lawrence facility is generally considered Farmland’s oldest and most expensive fertilizer plant to operate.