St. Lawrence County is not among the 15 counties eligible for assistance due to the summer drought, according to Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell D-Theresa.

Russell praised Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s steps to assist farmers impacted by drought.

St. Lawrence County is not eligible for assistance. However, Assemlywoman Russell and her colleagues are hoping to change that.

United States Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsak has designated 15 counties in New York State as natural disaster areas due to the extended drought. Those counties, in Central and Western New York, have suffered from severe, extreme or exceptional droughts for eight or more consecutive weeks during the growing season.

Nine other counties were named as contiguous disaster areas under the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act.

Russell said there have been varying amounts of rainfall in Jefferson and St. Lawrence counties this year with drought conditions appearing to be the most serious in the southern portion of Jefferson County.

"Thankfully our drought conditions are not as bad as in some other parts of the state, but many of our farmers have been impacted by the lack of rain this growing season. They need and deserve relief," Assemblywoman Russell said.

A secretarial disaster designation makes farm operators in primary counties and those counties contiguous to such primary counties eligible to be considered for certain assistance from the Farm Service Agency (FSA), provided eligibility requirements are met.

This assistance includes FSA emergency loans. Farmers in eligible counties have eight months from the date of a Secretarial disaster declaration to apply for emergency loans.

"I commend Governor Cuomo for making a request to Secretary Vilsak to issue the disaster declaration for all counties in the state that have been that been designated as suffering from moderate drought conditions and hope the Secretary of Agriculture acts on this request as expeditiously as possible," she noted.

She urged farmers impacted by the drought to carefully document the impact the weather conditions have had on their operations pending the decision by the USDA.

"This drought has only worsened an already struggling dairy industry because of the deplorable milk prices. I will be reaching out to our federal officials asking for their support in making sure the USDA makes its decisions on the governor's request as quickly as possible so farmers know their situation as soon as possible," Russell said.

She pointed out that the state legislators representing the region are all working to make sure farmers receive the assistance they need. "All of my colleagues are pushing in the same direction," she noted.