3.4 FARMLAND

3.4.1 Existing Conditions

Farmland. Current land uses in the beltway study area are primarily agricultural. The dominant crops are milo, corn, soybeans, wheat and hay crops. Historically, local farmers raised dairy and beef cattle, hogs, sheep and chickens; however, stock production has decreased significantly in the county.

Prime Farmland Soils. Numerous soil types occurring in Lancaster County have been listed as prime farmland soils (NRCS, 1998). Several of these prime farmland soils are mapped as occurring withing the project area. Form AD-1006 was submitted to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) requesting determination of impacts to prime farmland soils. This form uses the NRCS Farmland Conversion Impact Rating which is based on a scale of 0 to 260.

3.4.2 Impacts of the Four Finalist Alternatives

Farmland. Construction of the beltway will require conversion of existing farmland to road right-of-way, including paved lanes and grassed shoulders and medians. Impacts to production agricultural land, consisting of cropland, pasture/hayland, and other farm (including corrals, livestock waste lagoons, etc.) are listed in Table 3.2. Other on farm land uses, not typically in agricultural production, include woodlands, wetlands and ponds/streams are included in the previous Table 3.1. The majority of these acres occur on farms, but some occur on residential acreages. Table 3.2 shows that the alternatives will impact less than 1 percent of the

186 425 ha (460,666 ac) of farmland in Lancaster County--whether constructed as partial or end-to-end- beltways.

Although the beltway alternatives were designed to be as straight as possible and to follow the half section lines to the extent possible, it is expected that the beltway will create some locations of severed farmland where access can not be provided to the current property owner. In these cases, the damages will be assessed and compensated for as described in Section 3.6.

Prime and Unique Farmland Soils. According to the Prime Farmland Policy Act, the NRCS assigns a relative value up to 100 points and the project proponent (federal agency) assigns up to 160 points for the site assessment. Once the score is tabulated, the lead federal agency can identify the effect of the project on farmland and determine the suitability of the site for protection as farmland. Once the score is computed, the NRCS recommends that 1) alternatives with the highest combined scores be regarded as most suitable and those with lower scores as less suitable, and 2) alternatives receiving a score less than 160 need not be given further consideration for protection and no additional alternatives need to be evaluated.

Table 3.3 lists impacts to prime and unique farmland soils for each of the end-to-end beltway alternatives as determined by the NRCS (see Appendix A) using Form AD-1006. Impacts for the highest impact route represent less than 0.5 percent of the 102 340 ha (252,900 ac) of prime and unique farmland soils in Lancaster County. Because scores for all alternatives are all less than 160, no further consideration is required and the project is considered to have a minor effect on prime and unique farmland soils.

3.4.3 Proposed Mitigation

In order to minimize farmland impacts, beltway right-of-way will be limited to that necessary for roadway design standards and any required mitigation. No other mitigation is required specifically for farmland impacts.

3.4.4 No Build Alternative

The no build alternative has no adverse impact on farmland or prime and unique farmland soils in the project area, other than that necessary for construction of the proposed future roadway network improvements. The current trend of the conversion of farmland to rural non-farm uses, especially residential use, would continue with or without the beltway project.