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2700 Road and south of BB Road, Dean Stindt of the NRCS stated that the area of Barx soil type <br />was potential for prime farmland but only if it had an adequate and dependable supply of water. <br />After he did an inspection of the property in 1992, he concluded that the historic practices did not <br />include intensive irrigation management and there was not adequate supply of water for the Barx <br />soil type in this area to be considered prime farmland soils. This letter is found in Attachment <br />2.04.9 -6. Soil type 98E is a renaming of the original 70B soil type covered in the 1992 letter. <br />10.2 Prime Farmland Determination - 2008 <br />In early 2008, The Norwood office of the NRCS determined that the Begay, Barx and Darvey soil <br />types (equivalent to the 98A and 98E soils in the permit area "west" of 2700 Road), met the <br />qualifications of "Prime Farmland" as defined by the USDA, provided that they were previously <br />irrigated and managed for prime farmland and were of sufficient size to be economic. See letter <br />from Dave Dearstyne of the NRCS dated February 11, 2008 in Attachment 2.04.9 -10. Part of the <br />reason for this reversal was due to a typographical error in the previous NRCS documentation. <br />Based on this conclusion, a major effort was made to revise the topsoil handling procedures to <br />account for the prime farmland soils. This work was done in the latter part of 2008 and the early <br />part of 2009 under Technical Revision 57, which was submitted to the DRMS in March 2008. Very <br />specific and detailed soil stripping and replacement procedures were developed in this Revision <br />accounting for the prime farmland soils in the permit area. It was later realized by all parties that <br />the term "prime farmland ", as described in the previous letters, needed clarification. Basically, <br />prime farmland only exists where there is an adequate and dependable supply of water and the <br />land must be economically viable to irrigate and farm. This is important since some areas of prime <br />farmland soil may exist which are not truly prime farmlands. Examples of these situations follow: <br />a) Areas which may have not been historically farmed in the past for any number of reasons <br />b) Areas which are too small to irrigate efficiently and economically <br />c) Areas which may have been irrigated in the past but the water no longer exists to permit an <br />adequate and dependable supply. <br />(Revised October 09) 2.04.9 -16 <br />