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Not even the man known as Dr. Hydrogen could save a deal to bring Lawrence's Farmland Industries plant back to life.

Missouri businessman and hydrogen researcher Roger Billings confirmed Friday that he was abandoning his plans to convert the 467-acre plant into a cutting-edge manufacturing facility for hydrogen fuel cells.

Billings -- once dubbed by Time magazine as Dr. Hydrogen -- said efforts to reach a deal with state regulators on cleanup of the property proved too difficult.

"Though we were close to reaching an agreement, the fact that the site has serious environmental problems made it difficult to find a way to transfer the redemption duties from Farmland to my company," Billings said in a prepared statement.

The deal required approval from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. KDHE officials confirmed Friday that they believed the site's environmental problems -- largely groundwater contamination -- needed at least $7 million worth of cleanup. Billings did not say how much he was willing to spend to clean the property, which had been damaged during its use as a fertilizer plant from 1954 to 2001.

Billings said a May 1 deadline created by Farmland also made the deal difficult to complete. He said Farmland, which is liquidating its assets as part of a bankruptcy proceeding, had reached a deal to sell the bulk of the facility's fertilizer production equipment to Louisiana Chemical Equipment Co.

The fertilizer equipment was of prime interest to Billings because in addition to manufacturing fuel cells, he intended to produce fertilizer at the site as a way of providing cash to his hydrogen company. Billings said he had an option until today to purchase the land and equipment. Once the option expired, Farmland was obligated to sell the equipment to the Louisiana company, Billings said.

"I think if we would have had another two weeks, we would have been able to put it together," Billings said.

Farmland officials did not return calls seeking comment. Attempts to reach an official with Louisiana Chemical were unsuccessful.

Bill Anderson, an attorney with KDHE, said despite the collapse of the deal, regulators remained confident the site would be properly cleaned up. Anderson said Farmland already had agreed to place $7 million into a trust fund to pay for any future cleanup efforts deemed necessary by KDHE.

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"We think that is a pretty good figure to make sure the property is taken care of," Anderson said.

If the property is sold, the buyer would have to put at least the same amount of money into a trust fund to ensure future cleanup.

Douglas County Commissioner Charles Jones said he was not optimistic that a buyer from the private sector would be found. City and county officials have expressed an interest in purchasing the property for use as open space and an expansion of the East Hills Business Park, which is adjacent to the site.

"My thoughts are that any hope of the private sector stepping in to put this site back to work are diminishing very quickly," Jones said. "If the site is going to be put back to work, it likely will have to be some sort of public-private partnership."

Jones said city and county officials continued to investigate the environmental issues at the site and how large of a financial commitment it would take from taxpayers to purchase and clean the property.

He said he expected the governments to make a decision on whether to move forward on the property within the next 30 days.