The EIR proposes a couple of options for dealing with farming issues, including providing underpasses for farm equipment to get from one side of the tracks to the other or additional compensation for farmers who can show a hardship from farms being severed.

The report states that the authority also would establish a program to consolidate isolated "remnant parcels" created when tracks bisect property. Those parcels would be sold to neighboring landowners on the same side of the track.

The report said state and federal officials "expect that productive farmland would be farmed in some manner, and not left idle in perpetuity."

While the environmental report defines a preferred north-south route between Merced and Fresno, questions remain over how the route would go through or around Chowchilla. The answers will depend on how state rail planners decide to connect the Merced-Fresno line with the Bay Area.

Chowchilla sits amid a virtual spaghetti bowl of lines on a map for an east-west connection to Gilroy and San Jose. Different options for what planners call the "Chowchilla Wye" swoop either east, west or south of the city. The Chowchilla City Council has gone on the record opposing any route that comes through town.

Richards said he understands that feelings will continue to run high over the route: "I know the farming interests are as much interested in the Chowchilla Wye as they are with anything else on the route."

The environmental report "isn't necessarily going to change anyone's mind, because they've already established their position," Richards said. "But the intent of the report is to provide the information we can rely on to decide which is better among the alternatives.

"The logic of the hybrid makes a lot more sense to me."

In letters to the state rail authority, both the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency agreed that the hybrid route appears to be the "least environmentally damaging practicable alternative."

The environmental report follows up on a draft report published last summer for two months of comments and critique from the public and a slew of local, state and federal government agencies. Nearly 900 comments were made from August to October; comments and responses account for 16 chapters -- 3,066 pages -- in the final report. The final report incorporates those comments and the responses of engineers and planners to address those concerns.

Those comments are in addition to several thousand pages of analysis and 52 technical reports in support of the EIR.

"I think basically the document probably goes a long way to support why we thought the hybrid is the preferred alignment," Richards said.

The state rail authority's board is expected to formally certify the report at a two-day meeting May 2-3 in Fresno; the Federal Railroad Administration likely will approve the report by June. Those approvals would clear the way for the authority to begin buying the right of way it needs along the chosen route and award the first construction contracts later this year -- if the state Assembly and Senate agree to allocate about $6 billion for the project.

HSR BOARD IN FRESNO

The California High-Speed Rail Authority board will hold public meetings May 2-3 at the Fresno Convention Center, starting at 10 a.m. each day. On May 2, the authority's board will receive a presentation and public comment on the final environmental impact report for the Merced- Fresno section. On May 3, the board will consider certifying the report and approving the project.