Give your input on Washington’s first statewide water quality permit for wineries

The Winery General Permit will ensure Washington wineries protect water quality as they cultivate sustainable practices.

We are proposing a new statewide water quality permit for wineries, called the Winery General Permit. This permit will establish practices for managing winery wastewater. The comment period opens today and we will accept comments until Feb. 14, 2018.

We are also holding four public hearings: two online webinars, one in-person meeting in Eastern Washington, and one in-person meeting in Western Washington. See below for more details.

Helping Washington wineries be more sustainable

Washington is the second-largest wine-producing state in the nation. Because the wine production in Washington has increased greatly over the past decade, we decided to develop a general permit that establishes good waste management practices.

We have been working with the wine industry since 2014. We formed an advisory group to advise us. We heard from representatives of wineries that the vast majority of Washington wineries have very low annual production volumes and are already heavily regulated.

In the proposed draft we included flexibility, compliance options, benchmarks, and scaled requirements for small producers and existing facilities. The draft permit focuses on best management practices and data collection. 

The wastewater made from winemaking facilities has the potential to contaminate groundwater, which is where many Washingtonians get their drinking water.Why is winery wastewater a concern for water quality?

Contamination can occur if a winery’s septic tank and drainfield system fails, if their wastewater lagoon leaks, or if they use too much untreated wastewater to irrigate their crops. Winery wastewater can have high amounts of organic matter and solids, and extreme pH ranges.

• Pollute groundwater aquifers that supply drinking water and the water used to make wine.
• Kill aquatic organisms.
• Overwhelm wastewater treatment plants causing untreated sewage to be discharged to Puget Sound and rivers.

  

How can you comment?

• Draft Winery General Permit
• Revised Fact Sheet
• Notice of Intent (application)
• Economic Impact Analysis


• Join us online at one of our webinars:
  • Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 at 10:30 a.m.
    Register to join the morning webinar
  • Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2018 at 6:00 p.m
    Register to join the evening webinar
   
  Join us for in-person hearings:
   

  Prosser	Bellevue
  Tuesday, Jan. 30 at 10:30 a.m. Benton County P.U.D. - Prosser 250 Gap Road Prosser, WA 99336	Friday, Feb. 2 at 1:30 p.m. South Bellevue Community Center 14509 SE Newport Way Bellevue, WA 98006

   

  

  Submit written comments

  We will accept written comments on the draft permit, fact sheet, and supporting documentation until 11:59 p.m. on Feb. 14, 2018. We prefer comments be submitted through our online comment form. Comments should reference specific permit text when possible.
   
  Submit comments

  • Online via the e-Comment form
  • By mail:
    Stacey Callaway
    Washington State Department of Ecology
    P.O. Box 47696
    Olympia, WA 98504-7696

   

  What’s next?

  We will respond to comments and include them as an appendix in the fact sheet of the permit. If comments cause a large change in the permit, we may hold another public comment period. If there are no major changes, we expect to issue the permit in the summer of 2018.

  Check out our website for more info: www.ecology.wa.gov/winerypermit