Manitoba Sustainable Development (SD) has approached the City of Morden over concerns of the lagoon's capacity.

Mayor Brandon Burley explains they need to prove to SD the city is capable of handling new connections; with how close they are to the start of the Regional Waste Water Treatment Plant, the city doesn't want to spend $1 million to add a new cell to the lagoon.

Extending the life span of their current lagoon is the primary goal, says Burley, and once the RWWTP has been completed, capacity issues will be resolved.

"We extend the life of it by reducing our dependency on it. We need to do some short-term stuff we should be doing anyway, like recycling the water at the spray pad; right now every ounce of water goes into the lagoon. We need more awareness around by-laws around pumping back into city sewers."

Currently, it's illegal to pump into the city's sewers with items such as sub-pumps, except with special license in the winter.

Burley notes there are other elements which need to be addressed to continue the community's growth.

"Our water treatment facility is underutilized at the moment; we have a lot of capacity there. The access to water though will be a continuing challenge; sewer, policing, all those challenges come as part of growth."

Infrastructure is another major challenge the city faces says Burley, with intersections such as Thornhill and First and Thornhill and Mountain which don't have a high capacity for vehicle traffic.

Burley adds these challenges are limiting the city's potential, but the lagoon is the primary bottleneck.

Although with the heavy snowfall it wasn't a year conducive to capacity management, Burley says they need to prove they are capable of those new connections and will be working closely with an Environmental Engineer.

Both the mayor and City Manger have had several meetings with SD, and Burley says they've been assured they're close to a solution.