The water needs for the proposed Emerling farm expansion raise several issues important to Silver Lake residents (e.g., lake levels, water uses, and policies). The CLEAN team has been attending local ZBA and Silver Lake Watershed Commission meetings, representing our lake community's interests.    

On 07/11/2024 the ToP ZBA voted in favor of the Expansion at the Emerling Farms Dairy on Rt-246.  SLAWQ team members worked up through the DEC channels and have been in contact with John Hock, Chief, Water Quantity Management Section, Division of Water, NYS DEC voicing our concerns.  On 07/19/2024 we received the following response from Mr.  Hock:  We [DEC] reached out to Emerling last month to start collecting  information on their water withdrawal system. Based on descriptions of  their operation we believe that they are currently below the agricultural  water withdrawal regulatory threshold (3 million gallons during any 30-day  period).  2   We [DEC] advised them that if their operations expand such that they will  exceed the regulatory threshold, then they will need to apply for a DEC  water withdrawal permit.  

NOTE:    

**The drinking water needs for a hypothetical 1,000 cow-sized dairy herd requires between 0.5-1.6” of Silver Lake water annually  (11,000,000 – 36,000,000 gallons per year)

FOR THE FULL REPORTS, CLILCK ON THE LINKS BELOW