A municipal sewer could soon serve residences and businesses around Dutch Lake.
This is significant because there has been some concern that the septic tanks presently servicing the area might adversely affect the water quality of the lake as well as the two wells used by the municipality.
Clearwater council voted last Tuesday to direct staff to apply for a federal grant of up to $2.7 million to pay for the project.
The decision was based on a report on extending the municipal sewer system recently received from TRUE Consulting.
The extended sewer would serve from Wells Gray Inn west along Old North Thompson Highway and then up Dutch Lake Road and Riverview Crescent.
The TRUE report did not include Harby Road in the southeast corner of the lake but the motion by council does.
The extension system would largely be gravity-based, with a collection point at the low point near Dutch Lake Beach. From there the waste would be pumped over the hill to the existing sewage lagoons on the Flats.
The extension would be designed to accommodate the equivalent of 200 residential units (equivalent population of 500).
Upgrades done to the sewage lagoons over the past few years have brought their capacity up to enough to service about 400 homes, which is 200 homes over and above the existing 170 existing serviced lots.
The sewer line running along Old North Thompson Highway would be sized large enough to accept not just the waste from around Dutch Lake, but also from across the river near Brookfield Mall and possibly, in the long term future, the Sunshine Valley area.