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Technical Volume 6
Agriculture Impact Assessment

"The The general objectives of the Agricultural Impact Assessment are to assess the potential negative and positive affects of the SFPR on agriculture resources and the agriculture industry, and develop a mitigation strategy to avoid or reduce any potential impacts."

A brief review of this document has revealed several areas of concern. Gateway states that the ALR land in Delta is some of the most productive farmland in BC due to the combination of climate, good soils, level topography, and the capability of the area to produce a wide variety of crops. One of the impacts noted is that some farmers will be forced to change crops due to the Highway alignment, with some farms (Organic for e.g.), being reduced to 'Hobby farms'.

They go on to say that 90 hectares of ALR land will be needed for the footprint of the SFPR, another 15 ha would be severed and isolated, making future viability questionable, and another 20 ha would be reduced to lower value uses, for a total of 125 ha to come out of the Land Reserve. This stated impact does not include agriculture lands that are not in the ALR.
Mitigation and compensation measures are vague in description and are restricted to improving existing drainage and irrigation, hoping to merge severed and isolated parcels with other fields, or even other owners, adjusting the footprint of the SFPR, or purchasing other lands to add to the ALR, although it is admitted that there is very little land of this quality that is not currently in the ALR.

The only positive affect mentioned is the possibility of providing a faster route to market for some operations.

It is therefore recommended that the Environmental Assessment Application not be approved before all mitigation and compensation details are provided to show that they result in "no net loss of ALR land in Delta", no cost to Delta Municipality or its taxpayers and no reduction in the capacity of food production.

Reference locations in the document and the applied reasoning that resulted in this review summary will be coming soon.