Compliance Tool for California Water Order

Wine Institute has developed comprehensive spreadsheets to assist wineries in complying with the Winery Order that creates a new permitting system for California wineries that produce between 10,000 and 15,000,000 gallons of process water annually. The State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously on Jan. 20, 2021, to adopt the Winery Order, which gives existing unpermitted wineries up to three years to submit their Notice of Intent (NOI) and technical report to comply to their regional water quality control board (regional board). The order gives existing wineries up to five years after enrollment to implement the required measures, however, some wineries, particularly those without Waste Discharge Requirements permits or those in certain regions, may be asked by their regional board to submit their NOI and technical report as early as summer of 2022. New wineries must submit their NOI and technical report at least 180 days before beginning operations.

The Winery Order requires wineries to meet standards for their facilities as well as conduct regular monitoring and report the monitoring results to their regional board. The spreadsheets are designed for each tier, which is based on the permitted annual facility process water design flow, which is the total volume of process water that may be discharged from the winery, and spell out the standards required by the order, the timeline for compliance with those standards, and the monitoring required under the order. Wineries should note that the winery effluent design flow (in gallons per year), five years of recent annual winery effluent flow data (if available), and winery effluent water quality data are requested for inclusion in the NOI and technical report; meaning if that data are not currently being collected, wineries should begin documenting effluent data as soon as possible. If historical flow data are not available, wineries should measure or estimate their winery effluent design flow and annual flow and describe the methodology used to determine those flow values.

To better understand the compliance timelines of the statewide Winery Order, Wine Institute developed a flowchart explaining the sign-up timelines for wineries.

Wine Institute also designed spreadsheets to assist wineries with compliance with the new Winery Order by documenting the requirements of the order and providing a place to gather the data required by the order.

The spreadsheets are meant as a tool to assist with compliance, but don’t replace the need to review the order to ensure compliance.