The history of Oliver’s rural water system dates back to the early 1920s, and forms the beginning of Oliver’s very existence.
Following World War I, BC Premier “Honest” John Oliver initiated the Soldiers’ Settlement project in the South Okanagan. This initiative was designed to provide immediate and long term economic opportunities for soldiers recently returned from overseas. An ambitious water supply project was to be built between Vaseux Lake and the US Border to create thousands of farm-able acres, which would be sold to the new settlers.
An open-channel irrigation canal was built in the following years under the auspices of the South Okanagan Lands Project, supplying water by gravity to potentially serve 5,000 or so acres of land. Although the portion of canal south of Road 18 has since been abandoned, approximately 20 km remains in service today, serving as the life-line to most of the area’s farming community.
In the 1960s, the Provincial Government handed the irrigation system to local farmers, by creating the South Okanagan Lands Irrigation District (SOLID). A significant system upgrade was undertaken, converting much of the gravity-fed lateral ditches to pressurized pipelines. The main canal, locally known as “The Ditch”, continued in operation, however, to provide water to the four main irrigation pumping stations in the rural Oliver area. The elevation of the ditch, which is up to 30m above the level of the river in places, provided an important advantage in reducing the necessary pumping power and resultant annual power bills.
With a loss of provincial assistance, SOLID began supplying water to domestic customers in the rural area and along the edge of the Village of Oliver, as it was. The water rate charged to these customers played, and continues to play, an important role in keeping agricultural irrigation rates at a minimum.
Unfortunately, the irrigation system was never designed to meet today’s water quality requirements for residential use. Water quality concerns had confronted SOLID since it began supplying water for domestic use. During summer months, surface water was diverted into the canal from the Okanagan River and was used for irrigation and rural domestic customers alike. Treatment was limited to simple chlorination with minimal contact time.
In the late 1980s growth in Oliver and Osoyoos brought pressure on SOLID. Both municipalities were exploring boundary expansions and conflicts over who would continue to supply water to the growth areas; this was brought to the Province and again the South Okanagan water supply stage one more time. In late 1989, the Province dissolved SOLID and turned its assets and operations over to the Towns of Oliver (60%) and Osoyoos (40%).
During the 1990s, the Town of Oliver undertook a major $5 million rehabilitation and automation of the irrigation canal system. This project, funded under the initial Canada-BC Infrastructure program, placed over 3.5 km of canal underground, solving key rock-fall concerns of the past, repaired or replaced approximately 4 km of remaining open canal, upgraded several control structures, and automated much of the canal’s day-to-day operations. With continued maintenance, the canal is now seen to provide ongoing service for decades to come.
One of the greatest concerns was addressing the long-standing rural water quality issues. This was particularly pressing with past Cryptosporidium outbreaks in the Kelowna water system and of course, the E.Coli outbreak associated with the Walkerton Ontario water system. The Town determined the most cost effective approach to addressing this problem would include installing a parallel water system to serve rural domestic customers with ground source water (twinning). The alternate approach of treating all rural water was determined to be impractical as the water used for irrigation does not require treatment.
In the early 2000s, The Town started looking at a universal water metering project, and with the aid of grants was able to include rural water twinning (separate water lines) to supply both potable and irrigation water to our rural customers during the irrigation season. This was a huge undertaking but once completed it would provide our rural customers with drinking water that meets today’s water quality standards.
Construction on Phase 1 (Systems 6 & 7) of the rural water twinning project was completed in 2007 & 2008. This project also brought us a new well (Miller), new 150,000 US gallon reservoir (Road 13) and pipe twinning. Phase 2 (Systems 4, 5 and parts of system 1) were completed from 2009 to 2012. Phase 3 (System 1) was completed 2013.
