(CP) - Winery owners are concerned about the state Department of Ecology’s plan to regulate waste water discharged by wineries.

Costs and the scope of regulation could put some wineries out of business, winery owners told DOE officials at a session on the subject at the annual meeting of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers at the Three Rivers Convention Center in Kennewick, Feb. 10.

Bill Moore and Chelsea Desforges, DOE water quality specialists, said that is not DOE’s intent, but that the agency is concerned about protecting surface and ground water because of a proliferation of wineries, mostly in Eastern and Central Washington. California and Oregon have regulations, they said.

Washington wineries have largely done a good job of managing waste water but there is potential for problems, they said. They talked about preliminary permit plans, answered questioned and listened to wineries concerns.

Thirteen of the state’s larger wineries have individual waste water discharge permits, each tailored to their operations, Desforges said. DOE wants to draft a general permit for smaller wineries, she said.

DOE is concerned with loss of oxygen in surface water from the amount of oxygen needed to break down waste water that includes cleaning agents, grape juice and organic sediment from the washing of tanks, crush pads, barrels and winery floors. Loss of oxygen in streams puts aquatic life at risk, she said.

There’s also potential for contamination of ground water, the source of much drinking water, if too much untreated waste water is used in irrigation, leaks from unlined evaporation lagoons or comes from failing septic systems, Desforges said.

Stuart Childs, senior scientist of Kennedy/Jenks Consultants, a Portland engineering firm, said small wineries sometimes run their waste water through domestic septic systems but that those systems aren’t designed for heavy loads from grape crush and usually end up failing. Larger system are built just for wineries, he said.

“A really good winery produces two gallons of waste water per gallon of wine. But six is more common and so is 10,” Childs said.

A 10-ton crush produces 3,000 to 15,000 gallons of waste water, he said.

The state produces about 20 million gallons of wine annually and, at an average of six gallons of waste water per gallon of wine, that’s 120 million gallons of waste water.

Irrigation, winery septic systems, evaporation lagoons and use of publicly-owned treatment plants are all options, Desforges said. A double-lined evaporation pond with leak detection would be exempt from a permit, Moore said.

John Morgan, owner of Lost River Winery in Mazama, voiced concerns and asked for help, saying he has two systems and needs to install a third.

One winery owner said DOE needs to learn more since some small wineries do all their crush at once to minimize cleaning and do different things in different locations.

Another owner said there may be unintended consequences like an increase of crushes done in vineyards.

Caleb Foster, general manager of Bookwalter Winery, Richland, said winery waste water is essentially non-toxic and that most wineries don’t knowingly pollute waterways.

“We make food and care for the land,” he said. “We don’t dump waste on fish.”

Pete Hedges, winemaker at Hedges Winery, Benton City, said regulation is long overdue and that it’s good DOE wants winery input. He said there are problems like small wineries using domestic septics but that there’s no immediate human health concerns.