Bedford announced Monday that it will condemn the property of a landowner whose farm has been contaminated by the city's old landfill after negotiations to buy the land stalled.

Mike Schrock and the city government have sparred for more than two years over the contaminated groundwater leaking from the city's landfill onto his 92-acre farm.

Schrock sued the city in February for $2.5 million for damage to his property and loss of use as part of an effort to force it to clean up his land so he can farm it again.

His farm borders the southern boundary of Bedford's old, closed landfill that operated from about 1960 until 1993.

Both sides have accused the other of being unwilling to negotiate a proper settlement.

A lawyer for the city said the eminent domain case would proceed in Bedford County Circuit Court unless the two sides can agree on a sale price.

Eminent domain is a practice whereby a government acquires private property for a public purpose after paying the landowner what the court determines to be a proper purchase price.

In a written statement released Monday, John Daniel, an attorney with the Richmond-based law firm Troutman Sanders, which is representing Bedford, said: "We have tried to resolve this matter without delay and in an amicable way."

Daniel also stated that Schrock has refused to respond to the city's offer to buy his land and refused to make a counteroffer.

Schrock said he has repeatedly told the city that its offers, the highest of which has been about $300,000, are far below what he considers a reasonable fair market price.

"We have made them two or three counteroffers," he said. "They haven't liked the counteroffers," which have ranged between $1 million and $2 million.

Schrock said his Bedford County land -- about 44 acres is contaminated -- is valuable because it is zoned for planned industrial development, which means it can be used for a variety of purposes, including residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial uses.

He said land around his farm, near Independence Boulevard in the city and the Wal-Mart shopping center on U.S. 460 in Bedford County, is becoming increasingly more commercial, which is likely to make his land worth more in the future.

The city said recently it envisions Independence Boulevard as the city's future economic corridor for a variety of commercial enterprises, including restaurants, retail shops and a hotel and conference center.

In March 2004, the city announced that groundwater contamination was also leaking north of the landfill into the Bell Town Road neighborhood in Bedford County.

That contamination caused the city to extend a water line last year to six homes on Bell Town whose drinking water wells were affected by the contamination.

The city threatened Schrock with eminent domain in October 2004, then backed off when Schrock allowed the city to install monitoring wells on his land in order to track the flow of the contamination while the city worked on a cleanup plan with the state's Department of Environmental Quality.

DEQ approved the city's corrective action plan for the landfill in February.

It calls for using a variety of methods to clean up the contamination, including injecting chemicals into the groundwater in some areas and letting the contamination naturally dissolve over the next 10 years on Schrock's land.

Schrock said he has repeatedly told the city its timeline isn't aggressive enough, and prevents him from using the land for farming purposes while it remains contaminated.

He said he and city officials and their attorneys had been negotiating as recently as two weeks ago, and he was surprised to hear Friday that the city was considering taking his land again.

Whether or not the city has a right to take property in the county may also have to be decided in court.

John Burke, also an attorney with Troutman Saunders, said the city is within its rights to take Schrock's property.

"The code of Virginia specifically allows it ... in connection with the operation of a utility, such as a landfill, which is in another jurisdiction," he said.