Its once-feared environmental problems are deemed manageable, and private interest in the site has dried up.

Now elected officials must decide whether pumping public money into a shuttered Farmland Industries fertilizer plant could be expected to bear economic fruit at the southeastern edge of Lawrence.

“It’s not like there’s a ticking time bomb, from an environmental standpoint, that we have to get a handle on,” said Charles Jones, a Douglas County commissioner leading the public pursuit of Farmland’s 467-acre site north of Kansas Highway 10. “That’s all under control. The real issue is it’s an entryway to our city, and it’s an ugly entryway into our city. It’s also a potential site for industrial expansion, and we need sites for industrial expansion. …

“I think a fiscally responsible decision would be to put that property back to work, rather than just having it sit out there as an eyesore.”

County and Lawrence city commissioners will meet in executive session Tuesday evening to discuss pursuing a potential “public-private partnership” at the site, which has been silent since the Kansas City, Mo.-based cooperative shut down production in May 2001.

Farmland filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year later, and since then has been selling off assets. Among them: the cooperative’s other fertilizer plants and some vacant property along the southern edge of K-10 in Lawrence, an area primed for development.

But so far, Jones said, the site of the Lawrence plant itself has yet to draw interest from a single private developer. The problem: “heavy” nitrate contamination in filtration ponds at the northern end of the site; the presence of hexavalent chromium near the center of the plant; and a potential for asbestos issues throughout the plant itself.

Jones, former director of environment for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said he’d already spent months looking into the problems and determined that they could be handled.

“If the environmental issues were so horrific that we wouldn’t touch them with a 10-foot pole, then there was no sense in doing any extra research,” Jones said. “I think there’s going to be an expense there, and maybe a significant expense, but at this point I think the environmental issues are manageable. The next question is, should we start talking about some of the other issues?”

¢ 6News video: Farmland plant draws interest¢ Farmland auction set for October (8-5-03)

Among issues to be discussed Tuesday:

l What would the site be used for? Both commissions have backed efforts of a committee known as ECO2 to promote creation of industrial sites and preservation of open space, and the plant is adjacent to both the county’s fairgrounds and the county-owned and city-developed East Hills Business Park.

Mayor David Dunfield’s take: “Conceptually, at least, it makes sense to see it as an extension of East Hills, but I don’t know what the appropriate role for the city or the county is at this point.”

l How would the city and county finance it? Neither commission has backed ECO2’s initial push to boost sales-tax rates to finance buying industrial land or preserving open space. Such a potential financing source could be back on the table.

“We need to develop some kind of strategy for dealing with the current owner and potentially interested parties and how to resolve what is a pretty complicated set of issues,” Dunfield said.

Jones, who suggested that commissioners gather for the meeting, said he would suggest creating a joint committee to look into questions surrounding potential land use, financing and other topics involved with the issue.

Tuesday’s meeting, which is not open to the public, is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at City Hall, Sixth and Massachusetts streets.