(Wines&Vines) - Washington group fails to raise funds for appeal, Oregon sets exemption for permit

Olympia, Wash.—A collective of small wineries in Washington failed to muster the support needed to challenge the state’s new general permit for winery wastewater discharge. 

Family Wineries of Washington State, an association formed in 2008 “to advocate for issues of particular importance to small, artisan wineries,” was working to gather support for an appeal of 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 management practices for winemaking facilities to prevent pollution and protect waters of the state.” 

The permit regulates discharge of process wastewater to land groundwater and wastewater 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 municipal treatment plant. According to the ecology department, approximately 100 of the state’s 772 wineries will require the permit.