Town of Oliver is set to apply for a grant in the amount of 4.645 million dollars to make need improvements in an aging sewer system. The work when complete would address some safety issues, remove sludge that has been accumulating for many years and most important move in the solar power generation field.

True Engineering has prepared a detailed report that recommends the construction of a 50-kilowatt photovoltaic system to create renewable energy and offset greenhouse gas emission along with the upgrading the berm and aeration systems.

This decision to improve the sewer system will put Oliver at the forefront of photovoltaic power generation for this purpose. It will help train town staff on the use of a large solar array and that same system will feed into the Fortis power system when the energy is not needed at the sewer plant. It is traditional that pumping from downtown takes place at night and the solar system would generate power during the day.

Both of the existing sewage lagoon cells, constructed in 1995, have a total volume of 35,800 cubic metres and use a “fixed fine bubble diffuser system” to aerate the sewer sludge.