WILTON — Town officials are hoping that an environmental assessment of a former tanning factory on U.S. Route 2 will show that a portion of the property has minimal contamination and can be redeveloped.

Experts anticipate, however, that the rest of facility that sits on 15 acres will require a major cleanup of hazardous materials. The town took possession of the property this year because of unpaid taxes.

The assessment is one of five being done by Campbell Environmental Group, funded by a $200,000 federal grant awarded to the Androssoggin Valley Council of Governments.

The federal Brownfield Act program addresses properties where expansion, redevelopment or reuse of a property may be complicated by the presence of hazardous substances, pollutants or contamination.

In addition to the tannery at 833 U.S. Route 2, assessments are being done at the former G.H Bass & Co. property, a 235,000-square-foot site with six buildings now owned by Western Maine Development Group at 128 Weld Road. It is being used for storage by plastic, wood pellet and computer distributors; as a call center; and for welding and metal fabrication.

Other properties are the former Sun Journal office in Norway; the Color Center property in Norway; and Hillside Development in Livermore.

Wilton Town Manager Rhonda Irish said the assessments are a good thing for the town and that no local money is being used for the study.

“The Bass building is in good shape because when (Bass) sold it, they went through an environmental assessment required by (the Department of Environmental Protection). The company had pretty much kept the building up,” Irish said.

“There are a lot of concerns at the tannery. It closed in 1997 and nothing was ever done to address the contamination,” Irish said.

The DEP has studied the tannery site, tested nearby wells and monitored the most serious areas. The results showed no contamination of drinking water and no significant impact on natural resources, said AVCOG’s Planning Director Fergus Lea.

“We are dividing the tannery into a multi-phase project,” he said. “AVCOG is involved in the first two phases, which are a basic site assessment to determine potential problems and then testing the soil and air in the buildings.”

If testing reveals a need for an environmental cleanup, the town would be eligible for federal grants, he said.

Lea said most tanneries are pollution hazards due to the chemicals, petroleum products and processes used to turn hides into leather.

“The Wilton tannery has been on the DEP’s list for years,” Lea said.

In the lengthy preliminary report prepared by consultant Rich Campbell, he found improper storage, handling and disposing of hazardous substances and material at the tannery “could have potentially resulted in releases within the buildings and to the environment.”

Tannery waste was historically disposed of on-site, according to Campbell’s report. In Wilton, the area of disposal includes a polluted lagoon and covers 1.5 acres.

But Lea said the front portion of the building and front parking lot appear to be in reasonably good shape.

“We want to look at the most usable area of the building and determine if there are any problems there,” he said.

“We are hopeful we might find there is not that much cleanup necessary in that area, and that the town can get that portion back into use,” Lea said.

“While there has been quite a lot of interest in the site, because of the contamination of the property, it has not that valuable,” he said.

Lea said properties can benefit from an assessment to show potential tenants, lenders or buyers that the site has been found clear of contamination or that steps are being taken to address the problem.

The former Bass property has been selected for a “limited” two-stage assessment because of some issues that were not addressed by Bass when the company sold the property in 2004 and also because of recent use, Lea said.