Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/776679
February 2017 WINES&VINES 39 TTB LABEL APPROVALS Low per-label costs Gov't. Liaison Negotiations or Footwork Reasonable Hourly Rates TRADEMARK SEARCHES As Low as $185 Your trade names or designs are searched at the U.S. Patent Office to help establish valuable ownership or avoid costly legal liability. Over 100 years' total staff experience handling every government liaison need for industry. Phone or write for details. 200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 321 Arlington, Virginia 22203 Phone: (703) 524-8200 Fax: 525-8451 TOLL-FREE 1-800-642-6564 Major Credit Cards Accepted www.trademarkinfo.com Since 1957 GovtLiaison_Dir08 11/29/07 2:00 PM Pag BARRELS FEMA REPORT BLAMES EARTHQUAKE DAMAGE ON TWO-BARREL RACK SYSTEM In February 2015, the Federal Emergency Management Agency released a report about the performance of buildings in the 2014 south Napa earthquake. The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck at 3:20 a.m. and caused significant damage in the city of Napa and to several wineries in the Carneros AVA and southern parts of Napa Valley. Prepared by Applied Technology Council, the report included a whole chapter about the quake's effect on the wine industry and noted that had it struck at another time of year, when most winery tanks were full, or at a different time of day, when workers and forklift drivers would have been working in barrel rooms, the loss of wine and fatalities would have been catastrophic. According to the report, a little more than 10,000 gallons of wine were lost due to poorly anchored storage tanks and from barrels losing their bungs and leaking after toppling and hitting the floor. The most damage came from toppling barrel racks. The report notes: "The overwhelming proportion of wine loss and wine barrel collapse was due to the two-barrel portable-rack system." Few wineries suffered structural damage in the quake, and the damage that did occur was often caused by full barrels toppling into walls or structural supports. The report notes the two-barrel racks "demonstrated poor performance" in the 2000 Yountville, Calif., and 2003 San Simeon, Calif., (near Paso Robles) earthquakes as well, and added that no stacks of four-barrel or reinforced racks collapsed. In conclusion, the report had several recommendations for safe wine barrel storage that included: • Use of the four-barrel rack is highly recommended. • Whenever possible, the height of the stacks should be limited to no more than four barrels. Shorter stacks tend to perform better and are less likely to topple. • When using the two-barrel portable steel barrel rack, the stacks should be oriented with the heads touching in adjacent rows. The rows should be oriented with the barrel bilges in contact. The current common practice is to stack barrels in deep rows with the heads in contact. Collapse of the stacks results in a domino effect as observed in the south Napa earthquake and prior earthquakes. • Appropriate space should be provided between the exterior walls and barrel stacks. • Stacking barrels on floors with slopes for drainage should be avoided. • In stacks of portable steel barrel racks, the top barrels should be restrained/strapped to their racks. Without restraint, the top barrels can easily roll off the supporting rack below and fall to the cellar floor. • Seismic isolation systems could be an option to limit the seismic ground shaking expe- rienced by the barrel racks. • If workers or other people cannot get out of the building in time, steel cages similar to the design of a forklift rollover protection cage should be provided at readily accessible locations throughout the barrel-storage facility. • Whenever possible, exposure of the public and winery guests to the wine barrel stacks should be limited. The report also concludes that the poor performance of the two-barrel metal rack storage system warrants further research and notes that while barrel storage on portable steel racks is not required to be anchored or permanently fixed to the foundation, "Further discussion on the performance of this system is warranted within the framework of the structural and fire safety provisions in the building code." The full report, which also includes safety recommendations for tanks and catwalks, can be found at fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/103966.