Irrigation
The irrigation season for agricultural customers using pressurized water from the Oliver Water System (rural and urban) ends on Monday, October 14th, 2024.
Crews will begin turning off services at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, October 14th.
If your service has not been turned off by Friday, October 25th, please contact the Public Works Department at 250-485-6213. No agricultural irrigation is permitted from the pressurized water system after October 14th, unless late water has been purchased in advance.
Growers on the pressurized system, who require irrigation beyond October 14th, need to apply to the Public Works Department no later than Monday, October 14th, to avoid additional turn-on fees.
The cost for late water is $2.24 per acre, per day, and is available until Sunday, October 27th, 2024.
To facilitate growers who pump their own water from the irrigation canal, the Town will maintain flows to a later date. Canal diversion will cease on Monday, October 28th, 2024.
For more information, contact the Public Works Office at 250-485-6213
Please find more information on the BC Assessment Website about Farm Classification.
All users fertigating, adding chemicals, or using plastic mulch with drip irrigation must do so in compliance with Bylaw # 1351. Non-compliance is an offence punishable by a ticket fine or prosecution through the courts.
Those users registered for fertigation in 2024 will have their water turned on for spray purposes; however, it will be turned off on Friday, April 19, 2024, if they have not provided a current 2024 Certification of their back flow preventer, or have not advised the Town in writing that they will not be fertigating in 2024.
For more information, contact the Public Works Office at 250-485-6213.
Late irrigation is available for those customers who require irrigation water beyond the early October irrigation shut down date set by Council.
Late irrigation is charged per acre / per day. The late irrigation rate for 2024 is $2.24 / acre /day.
To apply for late irrigation, please fill out the following form and return to the Public Works Department.
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.
Gallagher Lake Rock-Slide
On January 25, 2016, a significant rock-slide occurred at Gallagher Lake impacting the siphon and flume which provides irrigation water to the Town of Oliver, Electoral Area C (rural Oliver) and the Osoyoos Indian Band. The Town of Oliver engaged engineers to assess the damage and works necessary to ensure operations in early April for the provision of water to the vast agricultural properties.
March 4 – Information
March 4 – News Release No. 1
March 14 – Information
March 24 – Information
April 1 – Information
April 14 – Irrigation Open Date Confirmed
June 3, 2016
Town Staff and the Town’s Engineering Consultant (TRUE) met with our hired Geo-technical Engineer (Golder Associates) and Rock Scaling company (T & A Rock Scaling) to discuss the mountain that caused the rock-slide damage at Gallagher. It was deemed unsafe to work under in certain conditions and could require further rock scaling but also cause further damage to the canal siphon. It was also deemed an unstable mountainside that could require over $1.2 million in rock scaling alone to make the working area below safe for machinery and workers. There were still no guarantees that the scaling would help enough and the Town needed to start looking at other options.August 8, 2016
Council passed a resolution to give staff $30,000 to look into various options of fixing, replacing, or re-routing the damaged canal. TRUE Consulting, with the help of other Engineer Professionals, will look at various options in more detail so the Town of Oliver can make a better decision and look for a partner (Provincial & Federal) to help fund some of these costs. The options range from $4 million to $10.5 million at initial estimates.August 23, 2016
Town Council and Staff met with the Minister of Agriculture, Norm Letnick, at the Town’s Council chamber to discuss what has happened to the damage canal, what has been done, implications of damages, and future fixes and costs. Mr. Letnick encouraged the Town to look at future fixes and costs and approach the Ministry and government again at the coming UBCM Convention held on September 26 – 30 with the most recent info they have.