Secretary Roderick L. Bremby

Kansas Department of Health and Environment

Curtis State Office Building

1000 S.W. Jackson St.

Topeka, KS 66612

                Re:          Former Farmland Nitrogen Plant

                                Lawrence, Douglas County, Kansas

Dear Secretary Bremby:

The Lawrence City Commission and Board of County Commissioners of Douglas County, Kansas are sending you this letter to make you aware of our joint goals and concerns regarding the former Farmland Nitrogen Plant located adjacent to the City of Lawrence.  We understand that the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will play a significant role in approving any purchaser of the site and in directing the nature and extent of future environmental clean-up of the site.  In making any such determinations, we ask hope that KDHE considers the information contained in this letter.

Our joint goals with respect to the Farmland site consist of two related components:

• The First, is to make certain that the environmental contamination is abated cleaned up in a manner that does not pose any threat to adjacent landowners or the public, and that does not involve the expenditure of local public funds; and
• The Second, is to see that the site is put back to industrial productive use.

With respect to the first component, the City and County both want to ensure that that the environmental contamination will be abated cleaned up.  For your information, we enclose a City of Lawrence Resolution adopted March 4, 2004 is enclosed.  The substance of the that Resolution is that the City of Lawrence has taken the formal position that it will not annex any of the site unless “there is clear evidence and documentation that all remediation and monitoring and all other federal and state environmental requirements on all portions of the Farmland property are or will be satisfied.”  The Resolution does not directly involve KDHE, but we think that it is helpful to share it with you to make you expressly aware of the concern.

The city and county do have some concerns about the mechanics of a sale to a third party.  We urge that KDHE not allow a sale of the site to occur to any third party in any manner that might result in KDHE losing control of the remediation funds currently held in the FI Kansas Remediation Trust.  As you know, Farmland Industries’ confirmed bankruptcy plan creates the FI Kansas Remediation Trust.  This Remediation Trust was originally funded with four 4 environmentally contaminated sites and slightly over $10,000,000.  Of that $10,000,000, slightly more than $7,000,000 was earmarked for the Lawrence site.  The terms of the Remediation Trust place strict limits on the use of these funds and provide KDHE with a great deal of oversight over use of those funds.  The City and County have absolute trust and confidence in KDHE to determine the appropriate work-plan for the environmental work and to monitor the use of these funds.  However our confidence is strongly tied to KDHE retaining control over those funds and the remediation activities they support.  Therefore, we urge KDHE to proceed very cautiously when considering any request that would permit transfer of any of the FI Kansas Remediation Trust monies to a third party.

With respect to future land use at the Farmland site, the City and County have said for several years that they would like to see the Farmland redeveloped into an industrial or business park or a similar employment center.  Neither the City nor County envision use of the site for any type of housing.  We believe that this is relevant to KDHE because it may play a role in the nature and extent of site remediation.  We understand that, when determining the nature and extent of clean-up of the Farmland site, KDHE may require that the owner of the site impose certain institutional controls or restrictive covenants on the use of the various portions of the site.  If and when that occurs, we are asking hope that KDHE will allow the City and County to play a role in that process.  We believe ask this because it makes perfect sense for the environmental clean-up of the site to be tied to end uses, and the end uses contemplated by the institutional controls should be consistent with the end uses envisioned by the City and County.

Thanks to you and your staff for your fine work on the Farmland situation.  As always, we appreciate the time and attention that KDHE has invested in the site.  Please feel free to contact the City Manager’s Office or the County Administrator’s Office if you have any questions or concerns about this letter.

cc:  Ron Hammerschmidt, Director of Environment