KITTERY — State officials fear that the federal government’s plan to put the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on its priority cleanup list could make it harder to sell the property should the yard close down.

“If the site can’t be sold, it means it won’t be rapidly reused and facilities will rapidly decay, and you could lose businesses interested in the site and jobs,” said Mark R. Hyland of the Maine Department of Environmental Protection.

Hyland objected to the Environmental Protection Agency’s plan to include the Kittery yard on the Superfund hazardous-waste cleanup list.

He pointed to the former Pease Air Force Base in Newington, N.H., as an example of a federal installation whose redevelopment has been jeopardized by its Superfund designation.

Hyland said being included on the federal priority cleanup list can actually slow work at the site because of the added layer of bureaucracy that it can create.

Nancy Smith, regional national-priorities coordinator for the EPA, discounted the loss of development confidence in Superfund sites.

“It’s a common complaint and I don’t know whether there’s any truth to it,” she said. “Even if there was, that alone isn’t enough of a reason not to go ahead with” placing the shipyard on the list. In fact, she said her agency is pressing forward with such plans, despite state officials’ concerns.

The EPA has identified 30 locations at the shipyard where wastes could be found, ranging from battery acid to mercury to radioactive materials.

The agency will decide by February whether the shipyard should be put on the Superfund list, said Smith.