The Municipality of Rhineland has launched a study into the water and waste water systems in Plum Coulee.

Funding from the Manitoba Water Services Board will help offset some of the cost of the assessment.

Reeve Don Wiebe said this study will accomplish three things.

The first is to advise Council on what to do with the present lagoon in the community.

"The lagoon has been there a long time and so we need to know where that lagoon is at in terms of its present shelf-life...and then we also have to factor-in community growth."

Wiebe added the second aspect of the study will present recommendations to upgrade the current water distribution system in Plum Coulee.

"When we had the fire in the arena and the community hall it became quite apparent that our hydrants there don't have enough capacity to fight a fire...there's not adequate fire protection in some of the areas."

In order to address some of these inadequacies, Wiebe explained that a new reservoir and pumping station will be required and the study will help in starting that process as well. He said the new pumping station is also needed for another reason.

"We've been advised that having a fire station and a pumping station in one building is an incompatible use, and we've been given notice that we should start working on that because it is not a long-term strategy. So if we are building a new pumping station, and of course that will have to be relocated, they're looking at possible sites as part of this study."

Wiebe noted that Associated Engineering has been contracted to conduct the study and he hopes to see some results by the Fall.