Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/1007939
22 WINES&VINES August 2018 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS A collective of small wineries in Wash- ington failed to muster the support needed to challenge the state's new general permit for winery wastewa- ter discharge. Family Wineries of Washington State, an association formed in 2008 had sought to appeal the new five-year permit that the Washington Department of Ecology published on May 17 with an effective date of July 1, 2019. The culmination of four years of work, the new permit seeks "to establish waste manage- ment practices for winemaking facilities to pre- vent pollution and protect waters of the state." The permit regulates discharge of process wastewater to land groundwater and waste- water treatment plants and prohibits surface water discharge. Wineries that produce less than 7,500 cases a year are exempt, unless the state deems them significant contributors of pollutants, as well as those that discharge to what's formally known as a "delegated publicly owned treatment works" – typically, a munici- pal treatment plant. According to the ecology department, approximately 100 of the state's 772 wineries will require the permit. Even so, Stephanie Meier, an associate in the Seattle office of law firm Stoel Rives LLP, observed that permit requirements "will add financial burden to businesses and may hinder the growth of small wineries." This was the stance of the Family Wineries of Washington State, which counts more than 60 wineries as members. "We really hate the fact that it's going to make beneficial reuse of the water more dif- ficult – harder to spray it on your vineyard, dust control and that sort of thing," said Paul Beveridge, owner of Wilridge Winery in Yakima and a founding member of the Family Wineries of Washington State. "[Ecology] picked 7,500 cases completely out of thin air." Raising the threshold would give wineries extra room for growth before needing a permit. According to Wines Vines Analytics' winery database, an additional 14 wineries would be exempt if the threshold was raised. However, when the June 16 deadline to file an appeal passed, insufficient support had been mustered to pay for a legal challenge. Bev- eridge hasn't ruled out the possibility of future court action, but the lack of an appeal means the permit moves to the next stage of imple- mentation, which is the setting of permit fees. This stands to be a bigger question for wineries, which have been asking about the direct costs since discussions began. Wineries pushed back against initial suggestions that the fees could range from $350 to $500 a year for small pro- ducers and up to $6,000 a year for the state's biggest wineries. —Peter Mitham Costs Looming on Winery Wastewater Permits " We really hate the fact that it's going to make beneficial reuse of the water more dif- ficult — harder to spray it on your vineyard, dust con- trol and that sort of thing." — Paul Beveridge, owner, Wilridge Winery