LILY DALE
New water source proves plentiful
LILY DALE — Members of the Lily Dale Assembly must have had a premonition last year when they approved the exploration of a new water source for the community.
That vote has manifested into a high-producing, 349-foot-deep well sitting directly upon an aquifer, Assembly officials said Monday.
The drilling, which began in January, ended this spring. With its current test pump, the well will produce 70 gallons of water a minute, which is more than 100,000 gallons a day — well over Lily Dale’s demands, said Fritz Ehmke, of Ehmke Well Drilling of Silver Creek.
With a larger pump, the well would be capable of producing 240 gallons a minute, Ehmke said.
“If this well were larger in diameter, and an appropriate-sized pump and screening were in place, it’s highly probable the well would produce water at 400 or more gallons per minute,” he said. “The water is definitely there. Since the aquifer is under the general area, additional wells could be considered in the future.”
Lily Dale, a community of about 170 households, some of which are seasonal occupants, once operated its own water system. Local wells were abandoned in 1929, and for almost 80 years the community has purchased water from the adjacent village of Cassadaga, whose officials have attempted for years to come up with a new water well.
Assembly President Lynne Wiltsie said that as the Assembly’s water rates climbed, and water became an even greater issue for the village of Cassadaga and other municipalities throughout the county, officials considered the possibility of a well system that would meet Lily Dale’s needs, and could potentially provide water for adjacent communities as well.
“But first we had to come up with the water,” Wiltsie said. “Now, we have a well, and the potential to offer water to other communities. In the meantime, our next steps toward establishing a water system and all other related projects must first be decided upon by the Assembly membership.”
