Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/365438
20 W i n e s & V i n e s s e P T e M B e R 2 0 1 4 S E P T E M B E R N E W S NADALIÉ USA 1401 Tubbs Lane Post Office Box 798 Calistoga, CA 94515 Tel. 707 942 9301 Fax. 707 942 5037 info@nadalie.com www.nadalie.com Nadalié France since 1902 Nadalié USA since 1980 NADALIÉ USA, it's also... J ordan, Ontario—Canada's provincial governments are putting increasing pressure on wineries to manage waste- water in an effort to relieve the pressure on sewage systems and limit risks to the environment. Working on behalf of the Wine Council of Ontario, Mississau- ga's Bloom Centre set out to iden- tify the risks of inadequate win- ery wastewater management. Jay Mullin, project manager at Bloom, said many wineries focus on production and growing their business, making waste manage- ment a lower priority. "We're really trying to give (wineries) the capacity to become more proactive with how they're managing their water and waste- water," Mullin said. The Niagara region, home to the biggest concentration of wineries in Ontario, last year ceased to per- mit permanent onsite storage of wastewater, forcing wineries to send wastewater into municipal systems and face hefty surcharges if organic content exceeds desig- nated thresholds that burden treat- ment facilities, pay to have water shipped offsite for treatment or engage in on-site processing to re- duce organic content. "The municipalities don't re- ally like taking that water," Mul- lin told Wines & Vines. "A lot of municipal treatment systems are trying to discourage that practice, are starting to apply surcharges to hauled water (which tradition- ally they haven't done), or some- times even just not allowing hauled water to be dropped off at their treatment plants." Cave Spring Cellars in Jordan, Ontario, traditionally engaged in basic on-site processing of waste- water prior to discharging it into the municipal sewer system. Sol- ids were removed, however the water still exceeded municipal thresholds for organic content. Working with Bloom, the winery participated in a pilot project using a BioGill to filter wastewater. Biological oxygen demand, a measure of organic pollutants in water, dropped from 4,000 to 6,000 mg per liter to just 48, well below the threshold of 350 that triggers municipal charges. And British Columbia is fol- lowing suit. While some wineries have on-site wastewater process- ing, the province's Ministry of the Environment is clamping down. The government agency has asked wineries east of Vancouver to cease the discharge of winery wastewater into local ditches, while Metro Vancouver (the dis- trict that coordinates water man- agement across 21 municipalities in the province's southwest) re- cently proposed a bylaw covering discharge of waste from breweries, wineries and similar operations. Chaberton Estate Winery in Langley, which has a septic field because it's not on a municipal sewage system, has traditionally discharged its wastewater into local drainage ditches. The B.C. Ministry of the Envi- ronment "asked us to stop that," Brian Ensor, general manager of Chaberton Estate said. "We're just applying for a discharge permit for this harvest to truck it offsite." —Peter Mitham Canadian Wineries Float Ideas for Treating Wastewater "A lot of municipal treatment systems...are starting to apply surcharges to hauled water, or sometimes even just not allowing hauled water to be dropped off at their treatment plants." —Jay Mullin, Bloom Centre