Please take notice that the Saratoga Lake Protection Improvement District will hold a  public hearing on the 19th day of August at 10:15 a.m. at the Malta Town Park Pavilion, 285 Plains Road, Malta New York to consider the 2021 preliminary budget. Any person may be heard in favor of or against the budget or for any item or items therein contained.

Please do not attend this meeting if you have a fever, muscle aches, stomach ache, have been out of NYS  visiting a quarantine location or in contact with some that is ill or that has traveled to a quarantine location.

NOTICE: Central Rivers Power, LLC, is the privately owned dam on Fish Creek that controls the lake levels within Saratoga Lake.  Saratoga Lake has a very large watershed coming into the lake, 244 square miles.

There are many factors involved with the delicate operation of the dam.  Beyond recreation, downstream community safety is an issue with flooding, which may factor at times with maintaining a higher lake level in the body of Saratoga lake to protect other communities.  One inch of rain can raise the lake level three inches making the water level difficult to control for the dam operator.  Water quality, lake access and weed control are also taken into consideration.  With climate changes occurring bringing more intense weather conditions such as superstorms and drought periods, consistent water levels are even more difficult to maintain.

 Ideal summer water level is 203.3. 

At the end of October, the dam is opened, you will begin to see the water level in the lake then begin to lower.  There is no winter water level to be maintained.  Please take all of this into consideration when thinking of the lake level.

Saratoga Lake Aquatic Weed Harvesting

SARATOGA LAKE AQUATIC WEED HARVESTING PROGRAM
The aquatic weed harvesting program is to allow boating access to the deeper water areas of the lake and special projects to combat aquatic invasives.  The weed harvesters are not for in shore private property use.  This is for several reasons:

*New York State Department Of Environmental Conservation Fisheries Manager has  requested that harvesting be minimized when ever possible to preserve fish habitat.
*Operating the harvesters in between the docks is difficult,  this puts the harvesters  at risk as well as private property for damage.
*Working near shore puts the harvester and operator at risk due to submerged  pipe lines, old dock debris, and the risk of hitting docks or boats is great.  Harvesting is for boating access, only to clear paths.  Areas in front of and in between docks, boats, moored boats, swim docks and shoreline are the land owners responsibility.
*The harvesters stay away from all personal property.
*Harvesting near docks and closer to shore, may happen but it has to be limited and in response to a specific problem and when the harvesters are in that area.  In the same way that the fire department would pump out a property that has been flooded.
*The SLPID board expresses the focus of the harvesting program has to be for access to deep water and cannot for in shore personal use clean-up.