Posted on 07/01/2015, 9:00 am, by mySteinbach

The community of Lorette will see increases in wastewater capacity with the recent announcement of the Lorette Lagoon Expansion project. The announcement was made by the Honourable Ron Lemieux and Ted Falk, Member of Parliament for Provencher. Also joining in the announcement was Robert Rivard, Mayor of RM of Taché.

Lagoon expansion

Left to right: Ted Falk, Robert Rivard and Ron Lemieux.

“The expansion of the lagoon gives Lorette an opportunity to continue growing as a community while better protecting the environment,” said Minister Lemieux. “Projects like this demonstrate our commitment to working together building stronger communities, supporting economic growth in our rural areas and investing in much needed public infrastructure.”

“Our Government understands that by investing in local infrastructure we are strengthening communities, growing the economy, and improving the quality of life for Canadians,” said MP Falk. “The improvements announced here today will have a long-term, positive impact on Lorette, and is an example of our commitment to building a better Canada.”

To address the need for additional treatment capacity and meet regulatory requirements for nutrient removal, the community will be undertaking a lagoon expansion and nutrient removal project. The proposed project will consist of construction of a new aerated primary cell which will be connected to the two existing aerated primary cells. A phosphorous removal system will be installed to filter phosphorous before wastewater proceeds to secondary cell storage. As well, a new secondary cell will also be constructed.

Under the Building Canada Fund – Communities Component the Government of Canada, Province of Manitoba and the Rural Municipality of Taché have each committed $800,000 toward the project.

“It is always great to see the three levels of government work together to serve the needs of our communities. Large infrastructure projects like this lagoon expansion for the community of Lorette would never be able to be accomplished by only the local government. Local rate payers would not have the ability to pay for a project like this without it being a huge burden on local taxes,” said Mayor Rivard. “As long as we all keep working together we can accomplish things like this lagoon project and other infra-structure needs for our communities.”

This project will result in further benefit to the improvement of water quality associated with the Lake Winnipeg watershed. The lagoon expansion project is expected to be complete in 2016.