New Technology Minimizes Water Usage
California has just mandated strict General Waste Discharge Requirements for Winery Process Water. These new regulations will greatly impact small wineries in the State that were previous exempt. Many small wineries (840 – 8,400 cases) will be classified as Tier 1 dischargers and will be required to file permits, build treatment facilities, and perform expensive monitoring and reporting.
The issue is water usage and wastewater discharge from cleaning of fermentation and processing operations. The regulation itself is sound. Wineries need to stop wasting water and generating contaminated runoff.
GOfermentor has always been at the forefront of water conservation. Our single-use biodegradable liners do not require any cleaning, and wineries using this equipment generate almost no wastewater. The built-in press eliminates the need for cleaning a conventional press. GOfermentor technology has been in use world-wide for over 7 years and has been proven to make superior wines requiring minimal preservatives.
In addition to water savings during harvest, much water wastage in a typical winery takes place the rest of the year in cleaning and sanitizing tanks. Small wineries typically employ variable capacity tanks which are prone to oxidation and spoilage. These can be replaced by our SmartBarrel storage liners. These are single-use, so no cleaning means no wash water. The liners operate with no headspace, so no topping-off, ever. Available for IBC totes(330 gal), or barrels/drums(60 gal). Soon available to retrofit VT tanks up to 330 gallons. Your VT nightmare is transformed into a structural support that never need be sanitized again.
Small wineries in California using GOfermentor’s unique patented technologies can easily lower their water usage below the 10,000 gallon/year threshold, putting them in the De minimis category. This exempts them from even registering for this new regulation.
Also read the water usage (pages 9-11) in the study done by VITEC