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monitoring shows the groundwater is above the approved limit, wineries would haveoneyear toprepareanitrogencontrol plan andmeet the effluent limits. Cremers said the Wine Institute was satisfied with the board’s decision to of- fer groundwater monitoring flexibility for large wineries but was generally disap- pointed by the outcome. “It’s unfortunate that they failed to take amore substantial effort to recognize the significant costs that theorderwill placeon winerieswithsubsurfacedisposal systems, especiallysmallwinerieswhohavealready beenchallengedbywildfires andCOVID,” she said. The state’s wine sector will suffer $4.2 billion in losses fromCOVID-19 and lose an additional $3.7 billion from the 2020 wildfires, Cremers said. California Farm Bureau Director of Water Resources Danny Merkley, who spoke at the meeting, said smaller win- eries affected by the order would be “the most vulnerable because of their limited resources andeconomic impacts fromthe pandemic and recent wildfires.” Billy Grant, part-owner of a few small California wineries, said he agreed about the importanceofwaterquality, butwould need toconsider howhewouldpay for the required treatmentmethods. “We’ve financed everything, we’ve put upourhouses,wesignedpersonal guaran- tees and put it all at risk to be in this busi- ness”Grant said, adding, “There are some smaller wineries that are going to have an incredibly difficult time.” AshleyEgelhoff, assistantwinemaker at family-ownedHonigVineyard&Winery in Napa, discussedthe financial impactof the regulationontopof analready tough2020. “Due to wildfires, we will be bottling about 42% of our normal case produc- tion,” Egelhoff said. “Not only does this affect the long-term financial impact of losing most of the vintage and subse- quent revenue that vintage would gen- erate, it puts us in an awkward position with respect to the general order. The time, labor and cost burden (of the order) would be difficult to reconcile.” Mendocino County Farm Bureau Executive Director Devon Jones said the 80-plus wineries in the county practice sustainability and are innovative in their approaches tominimizing their impact to the land and resources. Speaking on behalf of the California Association of Winegrape Growers, Bob Gorenotedcascading regulatory initiatives onwater quality andquantity that have en- gagedgrapegrowersformorethanadecade. “It is worth recalling that sustainability as a tenet includes economic sustainabil- ity,” Gore said. Inaseparateaction,agroupofmorethan 50 wineries and restaurants in Napa and Sonoma counties filed a lawsuit last week seekingtooverturnabanonin-persondin- ing. The coalition cited “ravaging” effects onlocalbusinessesandemployees, alleged uneven application of the restrictions and violationof equal-protection laws. (Chr i s t ine Souza i s an ass i s tant editor of Ag Alert. She may be contacted at csouza@cfbf.com.)
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der at a meeting scheduled for March 9. The board said the order would safeguard groundwater and surface water through a permittingprocess forwaterdischarge. The order classifies wineries into reg- ulatory tiers based on the total volume of processedwaterdischargedannuallyprior to treatment,withdifferent application re- quirements, fees, andmonitoring and re- porting requirements. Wineries discharg- ing less than 10,000 gallons of wastewater per year would be exempted, unless they are determined to be in an area of high winery density. About 30 individuals representing small, mediumand large-scalewineries testified virtuallylastweek,withsomeaskingthat the boarddelayadoptingtheorder—particular- lygiventhedamageandlosseswineriesand grape growers have suffered fromwildfires andpandemic-relatedsalesdeclines. Michelle Benvenuto, executive director of theWinegrowers of Napa County, said, “I’m trying to think of how tomake things better forour vintnersandtheir employees ina year that has beendevastating.We are an industry on the brink.” Michael Martini of Taft StreetWinery in Sebastopol told theboard theeventsof the past yearhavebeenhardonsmall produc- ers, specifically the closures of restaurants and tasting rooms. “The pressure is on, as smaller brands sell out to larger producers or just call it quits. This is theunintendedconsequence of the adoption of this order,” he said. Martini and others suggested a more workable program that would involve identifyinganyproblemat each individual site and addressing that specific problem, rather than a blanket regulation. TedWells of TrincheroFamilyEstates in Napa also emphasized the importance of site-specificdata and sitemonitoring for a periodof timebeforewineriesaremandat- ed tobuildnutrientmanagement systems. “Iunderstandthat as it iswritten, youare going to be askingme to go spend $3mil- lion to $6.5 million on a problem that we both don’t know is real at those five sites,” Wells told the board. Susanne Zechiel of Santa-Rosa based Jackson FamilyWines said, “Our goals are not in opposition, we just want the order to appropriately characterize and address the risks wineries may or may not pose to waterquality,”addingconcernthatmoney thewineryhasalreadyspent voluntarilyon environmental and sustainability efforts might need tobediverted inorder tocom- plywith the order. Noelle Cremers, director of environ- mental and regulatory affairs for theWine Institute,whichrepresentsCaliforniawin- eries, recommendedrevisions to theorder to addmore flexibility and reduce cost. Ultimately, the board approved chang- es that could allow the largest wineries to participate in regional groundwatermon- itoring rather than individualmonitoring. Theboardalsoagreed toallowwineries subject to theeffluent limits for subsurface systems to instead install groundwater monitoring wells that must be approved by the regional board. Cremers said if the
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