This month, the RM of Ritchot’s council awarded a contract to WSP, a Winnipeg-based engineering and advisory firm, to perform what they hope will be final testing on the site of the municipality’s former lagoon.

Approximately five years ago, the lagoon was decommissioned when a new lagoon was created across the road to the south. The old site has since remained fallow in an effort to naturalize the area.

Soil testing is now required, as per environmental legislation, to ensure that the site is safe to use for other purposes going forward. Being situated immediately east of the landfill, the site does have the potential to provide at least one new purpose.

“[Once the] soil testing is complete, we’ll work with engineers to see if it’s a possibility to go into the lagoon area for the [landfill] expansion,” says CAO Shane Ray. “We’ve also purchased land west of the landfill on the other side of the road that’s available for a possible expansion somewhere down the road.”

Either way, Ray says that public engagement will take place before they make a decision on which direction to extend the landfill.

In the very near future, startup investors Carbon Lock Tech will begin construction of a new facility at the entrance to the landfill. They’ll collect organic matter as it enters the site, putting it through a process of pyrolysis to create an earth-friendly product called biochar. Ritchot is the first municipality in Manitoba to adopt this technology.