Emerald Estates will finally go on line this year — the sewer line, that is. At a cost of $2 million the municipality will extend the sewage forcemain and the Valley Trail to the south end of Emerald Estates. The project will be 100 per cent financed by the municipality through its trail fund and sewer works and service charges. The Valley Trail extension, which will go from the Nicklaus North Golf Course along the east side of Highway 99 to Emerald, is budgeted at $633,000. The sewer line, which will generally parallel the Valley Trail extension, will only connect about 40 lots at the south end of Emerald to the municipality’s main sewage treatment system this year. Those lots are currently serviced by a small, failing aerobic package sewage treatment plant. The plant is no longer in compliance with the permit issued by the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks The remaining 298 lots in Emerald are on septic fields or have holding tanks. Fifty lots in Emerald are undeveloped. This year, a temporary lift station will be installed at the existing sewage treatment plant in Emerald to pump sewage to the main treatment plant. The sewer line will be extended to the remaining Emerald Estates lots in 1999 and 2000, but hook up fees are expected to be expensive, due to the rocky nature of the Emerald subdivision. Emerald property owners will be sent a letter outlining the plan and the additional costs if residents decide they want to put hydro lines and gas lines underground at the same time as the sewer line is installed.
