The RM of Stuartburn has received some significant government grants to help upgrade the Vita lagoon. Chief Administrative Officer Lucie Maynard explains that one of their three lagoon cells has been out of commission for over a year.

"It was last spring, 2016, that (Manitoba) Conservation was doing a random check and they said we couldn't use the third cell that we had been using for the past twenty or so years. I guess without a clay liner, they were concerned that liquids were going to leach into the soil."

Maynard says they are in the middle of a $95,000 study to determine whether they can fix the third cell or whether they should rather build a new one. The RM and provincial government are each paying 25% of that cost and the federal government is paying half. The study is to be completed by late September.

Then, last week, Stuartburn learned it would receive funding towards the estimated $344,000 cost of either fixing or replacing the third lagoon cell. The provincial and federal governments will each pay one-third of that amount with the municipality covering the other third. That works out to just over $114,000 each.

Maynard says they are anxious to get the project done.

"At the moment we are restricted from using the third cell so it really puts us at risk in the spring when everybody is discharging into the lagoon so we're needing the use of that third cell."

Aerial photo showing location of Vita Lagoon