photo by: Nick Krug

The former Farmland site is seen in this aerial photograph on Monday, July 1, 2013.

A new strategy — with multiple backup plans — to remediate the decades of nitrogen fertilizer contamination at the former Farmland site could soon be underway.

The city’s current remediation method is insufficient, and at its meeting Tuesday, the Lawrence City Commission will consider an approximately $226,000 contract with a consulting firm, GHD Inc. GHD will complete a study of the Farmland site and come up with a new plan to clean up the nitrogen-contaminated water.

In its proposal to the city, GHD states that the new plan will lay out the city’s strategy to eventually complete the cleanup of the site.

“Our objective is to develop a strategy that will achieve regulatory closure and eventually restore the benefit of the site as an economic resource,” the proposal states.

Currently, the city uses a pipeline that runs from the site to the other side of the Kansas River to distribute the nitrogen water to farmers who add it to their fields as fertilizer. That method became insufficient after improvements to the pumping system yielded increased water and nitrogen collection at the same time that farmers were using less water from the pipe.

As of now, the city does not have a backup plan if farmers require less nitrogen water than the city has collected. That led to the city taking measures that some members of the public have criticized.

After water storage on the site reached capacity last year, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment authorized the city to turn off the site’s water collection system and release the nitrogen-contaminated water into the Kansas River under certain monitoring conditions. Specifically, KDHE authorized the city to release up to 500,000 gallons of nitrogen water into the river per day, from mid-November to April 1, according to the authorization. The collection pumps are temporarily shut off under the condition that the city increase monitoring to ensure the contaminated water doesn’t migrate off the site.

GHD states in its proposal that it will recommend “multiple contingencies” in the event that one or more of the options becomes infeasible due to changing regulations, weather, land use or other unforeseen conditions. After studying the site, GHD states it will submit a list of five or more technologies and alternatives for remediation, each with a cost-benefit analysis.

The process will include site assessment, remediation alternative analysis, community engagement and recommendations for remedial action, according to a city staff memo to the commission.

The city put out the request for proposals for the new plan in November. After proposal evaluations and interviews, GHD Inc. was selected as the most qualified firm and contract negotiations began, according to the memo. The study was not included in the city’s 2018 budget, although a $1 million project to cap ponds on the Farmland site was budgeted. That project will be postponed and that money used to pay for the new remediation plan, according to the memo.

As part of its meeting Tuesday, the commission will consider authorizing the city to go forward with the $226,000 consulting contract with GHD. The memo states this phase of the project is scheduled to be complete by the end of the year. City staff will also provide the commission an update on the releases into the river, according to the memo.

The city took ownership of the former fertilizer plant in 2010 with the plan of using part of the 467-acre site for a new business park, VenturePark. The city paid nothing for the property but accepted responsibility for cleaning up environmental issues left behind by the bankrupt plant. At that time, the city received an approximately $8.5 million trust fund that Farmland had set aside for cleanup.

The City Commission will convene at 5:45 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 6 E. Sixth St.