Steinbach will help foot the bill for an independent impact study on a proposed silica sand mine in the R.M. of Springfield.

CanWhite Sands Corp. is proposing to extract silica sand in RM of Springfield and process it at a new facility CanWhite is proposing to build outside of Vivian, Manitoba.

Earlier this year it was announced by Tache Council, that it had authorized the engagement of DD West LLP and McNeil Consulting Incorporated to conduct an investigation of the extraction project. Tache Council had asked their neighbouring municipalities to help foot the bill.

Councillor Michael Zwaagstra says there are a lot of concerns about this operation may affect our aquifer and the city needs to do its due diligence.

"This is agreeing to cost-share on an independent review to make sure that we have accurate information. This is a good opportunity to partner with our neighbouring municipalities because we all share the same goal, we want to have safe drinking water and it is important that we have this study to ensure that we know about all of the possible environmental impacts of this proposed operation."

Councillor Damian Penner seconded the motion.

"The reality is that for us and neighbouring municipalities and all municipalities in Canada, the most valuable resource that we have is clean drinking water and that is something that we have to ensure that we are confident that it will remain that way."

Mayor Earl Funk says he is glad to see all of these municipalities working together.

"The municipalities that are affected here, it is quite a large area and we all get our water from the same aquifer and if the water gets disturbed, it could cause the tainting of our water and we just want to make sure. I think this independent study is going to give us the information that we are looking for."

Steinbach will share the roughly $60,000 bill for this study with the R.M.'s of Tache, Ste. Anne, La Broquerie, Hanover, Brokenhead, and Reynolds.