A new company has taken over the operation of Lawrence’s shuttered Farmland Industries plant.

Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure Inc. — a Baton Rouge, La.-based company that specializes in overseeing environmentally blighted properties — has been appointed as the property’s trustee by the bankruptcy court handling Farmland’s liquidation process.

The appointment means that Shaw, not Farmland, will be responsible for finding a buyer for the 467-acre property east of Lawrence along Kansas Highway 10. Shaw also will be responsible for continuing a program to ensure cleanup of environmental problems created when the plant was used for fertilizer production from 1954 to 2001.

Shaw took control of the property Saturday, after a Missouri businessman who wanted to purchase the site and use it to manufacture hydrogen fuel cells abandoned his efforts.

Attempts to reach officials from Shaw were unsuccessful. But a former Farmland official said he was optimistic a buyer would be found.

“I think somebody will slip in and buy that land someday. I don’t think there is any question about that,” said Tim Daughtery, who was Farmland’s vice president of administration until Saturday’s sale. “It will take some time to deal with all the issues out there, but it will be bought because it is a great industrial site.”

Work to remove much of the fertilizer production equipment from the site is continuing, Daughtery said. He said Farmland officials had accepted an initial bid from Louisiana Chemical Equipment Co. to buy much of the equipment on site. Other companies will be allowed to match or top that bid for the equipment at a May 12 auction in Kansas City, Mo.

Daughtery said whoever eventually bought the equipment likely would be given from 12 months to 15 months to remove the equipment, which probably will be resold to a company looking to produce fertilizer overseas.

Daughtery also said area residents should rest assured that environmental issues at the property would be addressed. He said under terms of the trust, Shaw would have access to $7 million placed in an account by Farmland to continue cleanup of the site, which has contaminated groundwater as a result of years of fertilizer spills.

“The money is in there now,” Daughtery said. “It will all happen.”

Also as part of the trust agreement, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has the authority to order Shaw to take over cleanup efforts. KDHE officials negotiated the amount to be placed in the trust, and have said they believe the $7 million fund was adequate to address the site’s environmental issues.

Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones also said he had some hope that the trust agreement would take care of many environmental issues at the property.

“Whether the amount of money is adequate or not, only time will tell, but I think KDHE has been as aggressive as possible in trying to negotiate a good deal,” Jones said.

Jones said he still was concerned that there were significant asbestos problems in the property’s buildings that weren’t scheduled to be addressed by the trust.

Lawrence and Douglas County officials are exploring the possibility of buying the property to use for open space and an expansion of the adjacent East Hills Business Park. Jones said he expected the governments to make a decision on whether to move forward in the next 30 days.

Three employees work at the Lawrence plant. They became employees of Shaw on Saturday.