U.S. agriculture officials find faults with I-69 study

EVANSVILLE -- Federal agriculture officials have told the state highway department that its proposals to alleviate the loss of farmland for the planned Interstate 69 extension are inadequate.\nAn environmental study of the proposed I-69 routes through southwestern Indiana released in July found the new highway would use between 2,300 and 4,800 acres of what the U.S. Department of Agriculture ranked as prime farmland.\nThe state could lessen the impact of farmland losses by buying the development rights to farmland in other areas of the state and then restrict the land's use to agricultural, Jane E. Hardisty, Indiana state conservationist for the agriculture department, wrote to the state highway officials in an Oct. 31 letter.\nState highway officials said they could route the highway around farms or cross a farm at an angle that reduces the number of crop rows lost and limit the number of interchanges in rural areas.\nRoger Manning, a spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation, said all suggestions will be taken into account in the final route decision, which is expected by the end of the year.\nThe federal Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department have also written to highway officials about highway plans between Indianapolis and Evansville.\nBoth of those agencies said they were supporting a route that would follow I-70 and U.S. 41 rather than the five routes of mostly new construction that have been favored by the state.\nC. Randolph Rohlfer, president of the new highway advocacy group Voices for I-69, said he was not discouraged by the agencies' support of the U.S. 41/I-70 route.\n"Their comments are strictly from the environmental perspective," he said. "The environment is only one component of the purpose and needs for the highway, but economic development is still a primary reason to build the highway"