West Monroe making solar history

Thanks to money awarded by the Department of Environmental Quality,

the West Monroe Waste Water Management Plant is well on its

way to making solar history.

This year, 88 Solar panels are being installed on two and a half acres of land, making it the largest commercial solar field in the state.

Environmentally, that's great for the plant, which also transports five million gallons of water to Graphic Packaging each day.

The ground work for this project is expected to start in the next few weeks, and afterwards the panels will be installed.

City Engineer Robbie George says they will help the plant decrease its dependence on electricity, which will then reduce the amount of money it takes to run the plant.

He says that could be great for customers in the future.

"Anything we can do to help keep the increases from occurring or to reduce the cost, that would be beneficial to the customers...in that it would hopefully delay some of the increases that they would see in their bills," says George.

George says weather permitting, the panels should be installed by the end of the year.