Wine may be safe to drink, but that doesn’t make it safe to release into water or soil. Even when diluted, wine mixes with chemicals and other waste products to create the unique mixture known as winery produced water. The various compounds that make up this liquid all contribute their own potential hazards to the environment. Proper handling, including secondary containment where spills or leaks are possible, is essential both to protect the environment and to avoid expensive fines and fees.
Winery Process Water Composition
Understanding the general characteristics of winery process water is essential to planning both containment and processing. While the exact composition of each batch of water varies, in general this type of wastewater tends to contain a mixture of:
- Dissolved and suspended solids, in the form of crushed seeds, skins, stems, and pulp mixed with sediment and dead yeast from fermentation
- High levels of sodium and other minerals that increase water hardness like calcium, potassium, and magnesium
- Excess nitrogen and phosphorous left behind by fruit pulp or yeast activity
- Acidity in most cases where wine or juice content is high, or extreme alkalinity if the wastewater is mostly sanitizing byproducts
- A wide range of bacteria, yeast, and other microbes that can complicate both discharge and treatment.
Even the types of wastewater produced from cleaning and sterilizing the equipment vary in their intensity and composition. When there’s a need to dissolve built-up solids from tanks and barrels like tartrates and tannins, caustic cleaning agents are usually deployed. Then it’s necessary to follow up with acidic cleaners to remove those residues, along with an additional long rinse cycle to remove the last traces of acids. Switching to a single stage cleaning product not only reduces the volume of wastewater, but it also minimizes sharp swings in pH balance and chemical composition.
Process water generated during the clarification or bottling process will naturally contain a high percentage of wine. The rise in acidity and sugar levels will affect both the storage and treatment of this wastewater. Earth filtration, to clarify cloudy wine, can produce up to 15% of a facility’s total wastewater supply, so don’t underestimate the amount of water needed for these steps. Bottling can generate either wine-heavy wastewater from spills and overflow or chemical-laden process water during the sterilization process.
Challenges of Short and Long-term Storage
Even with the installation of ponds, tanks, and other storage units, it’s not always easy to keep winery produced water contained. Failing to plan for the sheer volume and cost of wastewater can cause a new winery to struggle, or even close, after a few batches of completed wine. Each new cycle of wine making results in a new load of wastewater, so you’ll have to plan for its storage from the beginning. Short-term storage still requires plenty of volume, seep protection, and leak control with a flexible and reliable liner product.
High Costs for Large Scale Storage
The volume of produced water from wineries is the biggest, single challenge for both short- and long-term storage. Of course, long-term storage requires far more volume since the supply will build up year over year until it’s reused or discharged. Yet, even trying to hold the produced water for a few days or weeks will require a large-scale system that’s designed to withstand potential flooding or leaks.
Designing a Complete System
Skipping secondary containment or leak protection because you’re only planning to hold the produced water for a short period will backfire in high remediation and repair costs. Planning out multiple tanks and ponds for processing and treating the wastewater can seem as complicated as designing the winery’s equipment. Yet, it’s just as important as the bottling systems or fermentation tanks, since there’s no way to simply make the processed water disappear without paying for it one way or another.
Need for a Fast Response to Spills
Wine making is often a seasonal task rather than a year-round one, but storage of the process water lasts all year long. This means that there are often no employees on the property during storms or at times when it’s possible for a spill or leak to occur. Investing in sensors and early alert systems can help distant owners and operators check for problems during the off-season, instead of having to pay for constant security and surveillance.
Planning for Future Growth
Most wineries start out small and plan to grow with customer demand later. Keep in mind that your future expansions will need to include more than just new fermentation tanks and space for storing barrels and bottles. Make sure there’s plenty of open land for expanding storage ponds to go along with the increases in produced water levels. Even just adding a few new tanks, to process a couple hundred extra bottles a year, will affect the total amount of wastewater and therefore require special planning.
Seepage
Digging a pit in the ground and filling it with produced water will only result in a slow but inevitable loss of the liquid. Water and other liquids seep through soil, even thick clay materials, to slowly escape into the groundwater supply. This is acceptable when it’s part of a designed septic system or underground discharge program, but it’s not allowed for storage ponds. Only an impermeable liner, from a source like BTL Liners, will work to control seepage. Don’t settle for natural clay products that still allow for seepage when flexible polymer liners are available that offer far greater impermeability.
Odor Hazards
Open ponds double as storage and treatment spaces, but they can also produce a wide range of unpleasant smells in the process. Since many wineries are either built near residential areas or host guests and visitors for tours, strong odors are a serious problem. Aeration, the use of covers, and management of water discharge rates, can all prevent odors from occurring or solve them quickly if they do arise.
Primary vs Secondary Containment for Winery Produced Water
The storage requirements for process water don’t stop with the primary pond or tank used for holding it. This kind of potentially hazardous waste also requires secondary containment, which is designed to trap any water that escapes during a spill or leak. Secondary containment can take the form of a basin built around above-ground tanks and bottle filling stations, or they can be built as secondary liners under ponds to redirect leaked water to pumps for removal. No matter what form of secondary containment you design for your primary ponds and tanks, make sure it’s scaled to accommodate potential flooding and leaks. General wastewater pond secondary containment guidelines will make it easier for you to design your winery system.
Containment is easy, year-round, with a reliable liner in every storage pond. Let no pad, containment basin, or spill protection area go without an impermeable liner. Flexible materials from BTL Liners are your best option because they are easy to cut to fit any unusual shape with minimal work. The same liners can serve for both primary and secondary containment purposes with the right design. If you’re still searching for solutions for produced water at a winery, share your questions with us to get customized advice on product selection.
