Lawrence and Douglas County officials want better access to the shuttered Farmland plant before they decide whether to purchase the property for public use.

Commissioners from the city and county governments met Tuesday behind closed doors to discuss the issue. They emerged saying they needed more information about the plant — asbestos levels and ground contamination — before deciding how to proceed.

“Farmland, I would say they have given us very limited access,” said Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones, who has served as a spokesman on the issue for both local governments.

The fertilizer plant east of Lawrence 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 Kansas Highway 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: 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 last week he’d already spent months looking into the problems and determined that they could be handled.

Tuesday, though, he said a closer look was warranted. But officials don’t know whether they would be allowed the needed access. Lawrence and Douglas County may try to take their case to the bankruptcy judge overseeing the liquidation of Farmland’s assets.

“I think we’re exploring options — legal options, particularly,” Jones said. “Nothing goes much further unless the courts address some of the concerns we have.”

There is no timeline for making a decision, he said. But authorities want to act before there’s nothing left to work with.

“We’re still very concerned,” Jones said, “that Farmland is going to sell all the assets, walk away and leave the community with the liabilities.”