Commissioners weigh costly Farmland cleanup

City and county commissioners went behind closed doors Tuesday evening to contemplate whether they would spend millions of taxpayer dollars on an effort to buy and rehabilitate the defunct Farmland Industries fertilizer plant.

No firm decisions were made, officials said afterward, but that could change within a month.

“I would imagine that, within 30 days or so, we’ll have a strong sense of where we’re going,” Douglas County Commission Chairman Charles Jones said after the executive session of the Lawrence and Douglas County commissions.

He added: “I think we’re beginning to get our first sense of the magnitude of this issue.”

Mayor Mike Rundle agreed.

“We’re still very interested in studying this,” Rundle said. “This is a very important area of town, and we’re very interested. But nothing has been resolved.”

Farmland manufactured fertilizer for nearly 50 years at the site, east of Lawrence on Kansas Highway 10, before ceasing operation in 2001. The manufacturing process, officials said, left behind badly contaminated soil and groundwater that must be cleaned up before the site can be reused.

Officials have expressed concern that the contaminated property would be vacant for years. City and county officials earlier this year pledged that none of the plant would be annexed into the city unless a plan for the entire 467 acres was presented to the commission.

Since then, a deal has been struck between Farmland and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment that gives state regulators control over $7 million of Farmland money to ensure cleanup of the site.

But Jones said that $7 million wouldn’t cover all the cleanup costs. And more money will be needed to buy the property, as well as extend city streets, sewer and water to make the site suitable for open space and a proposed expansion of East Hills Business Park.

Jones, who has been the point man on the issue for both the city and county governments, would not say how high those costs could go. He called them “significant.”

“It’s a huge price tag,” he said.

After the withdrawal last week of the lone private developer to publicly express interest in the site, Jones said, local governments may have no choice but to deal with the issue. Otherwise, cleanup and other costs could skyrocket over time.

“I’d say what we know at this point is that the private sector hasn’t stepped in,” he said. “I can only imagine it getting worse if we ignore it.”