Town Meeting voters on Monday approved spending $1.4 million to remove pollution from the Tremont Nail Factory District complex, paving the way for economic revitalization officials said.

Each year, the Community Preservation Committee awards money to projects through the Community Preservation Act in four categories: open space, historic preservation, affordable housing and recreation. The money is raised through a 3 percent surcharge on property tax bills. Spending the funds must be approved at Town Meeting. The clean up of Tremont Nail would fall under the historic preservation designation.

The $1.4 million request to clean up the Tremont Nail Factory Complex would pave the way for more economic development at the site, said Wareham Redevelopment Authority Chair Peter Teitelbaum. The authority is tasked with managing the site.

Starting in 1819, the site was home to the Tremont Nail Company. For more than 100 years, cut nails and other products were manufactured in the complex before the company moved to Mansfield. In 2004, the town of Wareham bought the site using Community Preservation Act funds. Teitelbaum said the clean up is being mandated by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Teitelbaum said the work is expected to take two years, wrapping up in 2020.

Teitelbaum stressed that the clean up is mandated by the state. If the town didn’t spend Community Preservation Act funds, Teitelbaum said the state would clean up the site and bill the town.

“This is something we don’t necessarily want to do, but something we have to do,” said Teitelbaum. “If we fail to clean it up the state would stick the town with the bill. All they would do is withhold state aid…We couldn’t survive that.”

To pay for the clean up without spending most of the town’s Community Preservation Act, Teitelbaum said the project will be bonded over a few years.

The main pollutants at the site are heavy metals related to the manufacture of nails and petroleum, which was stored in above ground and below ground tanks, said Tracey Costa, an environmental consultant with the firm Ransom.

Officials urged a “yes” vote, while some residents questioned if more money should be spent on the site without more study.

“This is a must do article,” said Finance Committee Vice Chair David Heard. “It’s kind of like paying your federal income tax or forgetting your spouses birthday: If you don’t do it, you will be sorry…Wareham is responsible and Wareham needs to clean it up.”

Planning Board member Marc Bianco said he wasn’t in favor of approval on Monday.

“Having spent 25 years in the remediation business I have yet to see a project done on budget,” he said. “We don’t know the full extent of the contamination…We’re possibly going down a rabbit hole and we the taxpayers need to understand what the end game is.”

Costa assured Bianco the site was properly studied and the full extent of the pollution is known. She said there is a 15 percent contingency plan built into the $1.4 million figure. Officials noted that additional funds could not be approved without Town Meeting consent.

Voters approved spending the funds 417 to 29.

Town Meeting was continued to Tuesday night at 7 p.m. in the Wareham High School auditorium where several other agenda items will be considered. All registered voters may attend and participate.