[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 7, Volume 6, Parts 400 to 699]
[Revised as of January 1, 2001]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 7CFR658.4]

[Page 735-737]
 
                          TITLE 7--AGRICULTURE
 
   CHAPTER VI--NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF 
                               AGRICULTURE
 
PART 658--FARMLAND PROTECTION POLICY ACT--Table of Contents
 
Sec. 658.4  Guidelines for use of criteria.

    As stated above and as provided in the Act, each Federal agency 
shall use the criteria provided in Sec. 658.5 to identify and take into 
account the adverse effects of Federal programs on the protection of 
farmland. The agencies are to consider alternative actions, as 
appropriate, that could lessen such adverse effects, and assure that 
such Federal programs, to the extent practicable, are compatible with 
State, unit of local government and private programs and policies to 
protect farmland. The following are guidelines to assist the agencies in 
these tasks:
    (a) An agency may determine whether or not a site is farmland as 
defined in Sec. 658.2(a) or the agency may request that NRCS make such a 
determination. If an agency elects not to make its own determination, it 
should make a request to NRCS on Form AD-1006, the Farmland Conversion 
Impact Rating Form, available at NRCS offices, for determination of 
whether the site is farmland subject to the Act. If neither the entire 
site nor any part of it are subject to the Act, then the Act will not 
apply and NRCS will so notify the agency. If the site is determined by 
NRCS to be subject to the Act, then NRCS will measure the relative value 
of the site as farmland on a scale of 0 to 100 according to the 
information sources listed in Sec. 658.5(a). NRCS will respond to these 
requests within 10 working days of their receipt except that in cases 
where a site visit or land evaluation system design is needed, NRCS will 
respond in 30 working days. In the event that NRCS fails to complete its 
response within the required period, if further delay would interfere 
with construction activities, the agency should proceed as though the 
site were not farmland.

[[Page 736]]

    (b) The Form AD 1006, returned to the agency by NRCS will also 
include the following incidental information: The total amount of 
farmable land (the land in the unit of local government's jurisdiction 
that is capable of producing the commonly grown crop); the percentage of 
the jurisdiction that is farmland covered by the Act; the percentage of 
farmland in the jurisdiction that the project would convert; and the 
percentage of farmland in the local government's jurisdiction with the 
same or higher relative value than the land that the project would 
convert. These statistics will not be part of the criteria scoring 
process, but are intended simply to furnish additional background 
information to Federal agencies to aid them in considering the effects 
of their projects on farmland.
    (c) After the agency receives from NRCS the score of a site's 
relative value as described in Sec. 658.4(a) and then applies the site 
assessment criteria which are set forth in Sec. 658.5 (b) and (c), the 
agency will assign to the site a combined score of up to 260 points, 
composed of up to 100 points for relative value and up to 160 points for 
the site assessment. With this score the agency will be able to identify 
the effect of its programs on farmland, and make a determination as to 
the suitability of the site for protection as farmland. Once this score 
is computed, USDA recommends:
    (1) Sites with the highest combined scores be regarded as most 
suitable for protection under these criteria and sites with the lowest 
scores, as least suitable.
    (2) Sites receiving a total score of less than 160 need not be given 
further consideration for protection and no additional sites need to be 
evaluated.
    (3) Sites receiving scores totaling 160 or more be given 
increasingly higher levels of consideration for protection.
    (4) When making decisions on proposed actions for sites receiving 
scores totaling 160 or more, agency personnel consider:
    (i) Use of land that is not farmland or use of existing structures;
    (ii) Alternative sites, locations and designs that would serve the 
proposed purpose but convert either fewer acres of farmland or other 
farmland that has a lower relative value;
    (iii) Special siting requirements of the proposed project and the 
extent to which an alternative site fails to satisfy the special siting 
requirements as well as the originally selected site.
    (d) Federal agencies may elect to assign the site assessment 
criteria relative weightings other than those shown in Sec. 658.5 (b) 
and (c). If an agency elects to do so, USDA recommends that the agency 
adopt its alternative weighting system (1) through rulemaking in 
consultation with USDA, and (2) as a system to be used uniformly 
throughout the agency. USDA recommends that the weightings stated in 
Sec. 658.5 (b) and (c) be used until an agency issues a final rule to 
change the weightings.
    (e) It is advisable that evaluations and analyses of prospective 
farmland conversion impacts be made early in the planning process before 
a site or design is selected, and that, where possible, agencies make 
the FPPA evaluations part of the National Environmental Policy Act 
(NEPA) process. Under the agency's own NEPA regulations, some categories 
of projects may be excluded from NEPA which may still be covered under 
the FPPA. Section 1540(c)(4) of the Act exempts projects that were 
beyond the planning stage and were in either the active design or 
construction state on the effective date of the Act. Section 1547(b) 
exempts acquisition or use of farmland for national defense purposes. 
There are no other exemptions of projects by category in the Act.
    (f) Numerous States and units of local government are developing and 
adopting Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA) systems to evaluate 
the productivity of agricultural land and its suitability for conversion 
to nonagricultural use. Therefore, States and units of local government 
may have already performed an evaluation using criteria similar to those 
contained in this rule applicable to Federal agencies. USDA recommends 
that where sites are to be evaluated within a jurisdiction having a 
State or local LESA system that has been approved by the governing body 
of such jurisdiction and has been placed on the NRCS

[[Page 737]]

State conservationist's list as one which meets the purpose of the FPPA 
in balance with other public policy objectives, Federal agencies use 
that system to make the evaluation.
    (g) To meet reporting requirements of section 1546 of the Act, 7 
U.S.C. 4207, and for data collection purposes, after the agency has made 
a final decision on a project in which one or more of the alternative 
sites contain farmland subject to the FPPA, the agency is requested to 
return a copy of the Form AD-1006, which indicates the final decision of 
the agency, to the NRCS field office.
    (h) Once a Federal agency has performed an analysis under the FPPA 
for the conversion of a site, that agency's, or a second Federal 
agency's determination with regard to additional assistance or actions 
on the same site do not require additional redundant FPPA analysis.

[49 FR 27724, July 5, 1984, as amended at 59 FR 31118, June 17, 1994]