Geotextile Tubes along the shoreline of Delta Beach have posed a concern for many residents for a few years now. Harvey Oakley's one of them, and would like to see them go.

Harvey Oakley"I'd like to see it taken out so that nature can restore our beaches in my lifetime. But whether it happens or not, I don't know."

The RM of Portage la Prairie recently arranged for a company to sever the tubes at strategic points to allow more water flow behind them, to resolve the stagnant pools problem forming along the beach. Oakley says he doesn't see that as a solution.

"Well then we're going to have sandbanks at the cuts going north and south, and we're still going to have large duck ponds in between these sandbanks. There's going to be no flow if we have sandbanks running north and south. It's going to be duck ponds all along."

"WARNING: POND WATER DANGEROUS: DEEP HOLES AND QUICKSANDLIKE BOTTOM"The RM decided they'd rather keep the tubes in case of future floods, and feel cutting them provides for future protection while at the same time allow the added water flow to fill in deeper holes in pools behind the tubes. Oakley notes it's better to remove right now them altogether since the tubes are subject to short-term deterioration.

"It's not going to last forever. So, what are these people going to do that want them to stay, and in another two years they're going to deteriorate? They're going to be gone. And there's going to be no channel on the north end to drain the lake. So, what do we do then? They're not going to put them back in. They're going to be faced with that situation, anyway."

Stagnant ponds forming behind Geotextile Tubes