Portage la Prairie City Council's awarded a tender to come up with strategies to improve water quality in Crescent Lake.

Community Services Chair Brent Froese says methods they've used in the past haven't been as effective as hoped, so they'll now focus on water from the Assiniboine River, and the lake itself.

"So we're going to test that over a period of time, just to get a baseline of what the water quality is currently. And then, we're going to look at the sediment at the bottom of the lake, and see what that's contributing, or taking out of the water, in terms of nutrients. Hopefully, they'll come up with some strategies, both to maintain and improve the water quality, and possibly give us some ideas as to future uses of the lake."

He two firms bid for the job, and the decision wasn't easy.

"Kind of a tough choice, because the one company with the higher price, which we didn't end up engaging (Native Plant Solutions), was a branch of Ducks Unlimited, which an international reputation for managing wetlands. We ended up with a proposal from a company called North South (Consultants), whose expertise has been in doing environmental assessments."

The tender's price tag is just over $48,600 dollars.