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Ballentine Vineyards is one of the Napa Valley wineries with their own on-site moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) wastewater treatment system.
While it doesn't look like much, the pictured tanks comprise the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) system at Ballentine Vineyards, and pump thousands of gallons of water every day.
By treating its wastewater, Ballentine Vineyards is able to irrigate while still limiting their water use.
The process of making wine requires a lot of water — the rough estimate among industry players is about a 6:1 ratio — and thus results in a lot of wastewater.
So in a place that seems to be in an eternal state of drought, winery owners and vineyard operators want to make the most out of their waste, turning the sludgy offshoot into clean water for irrigating the fields.
Many Napa Valley wineries, therefore, have adopted their own on-site wastewater treatment systems to turn production waste into means of irrigating their vines.
Different systems exist to treat the pulpy, thick and already-used wastewater, with a handful of different types of tech here in Napa Valley keeping notable vineyards quenched. Regardless of the specific type, though, most on-site winery wastewater systems have a few basic commonalities, the first being expense.
Beyond that, each system does whatever it can to neutralize the pH, or acidity, of wastewater and get it to the point where it can be put back out into the watershed via irrigation, or in certain cases, can be pumped back into the sewer system.
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One such system is a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR). An MBBR system uses activated sludge and little plastic biochips to treat wastewater and is relatively common here in Napa Valley. The primary tanks in the MBBR system largely rid the water of thicker materials, and eventually land either in an aeration tank or the sludge reservoir.
Eventually, the clear(er) water makes it to an aeration tank with biochips that look like tiny plastic rotelle pasta. The biochips then attract and increase the volume of microorganisms in the tank, which then consume the unwanted organic materials in the water before being clarified and disinfected.
Ballentine Vineyards is one of the Napa Valley wineries that has an on-site MBBR system, and winemaker Bruce Devlin has found himself as the tanks’ personal mechanic.
“We had this installed about three years ago, [and] about 7,000 gallons of water run through the system a day,” said Devlin. “When you put the system in there are management options, so different levels of service, and we went with no service so I am the one managing it.”
Devlin has made adjustments since taking over the tanks, but most of the controls and maintenance mean replacing sensors, pumps, and monitoring the screen that he refers to as “The Brain.” On this small, digitized screen, you can see a real-time visualization of how full each tank is in the system.
For a closer look, though, you can climb up the ladder alongside the main tank and watch the bubbly, sludgy process happen.
“It's all part of the process,” said Devlin. “There are a lot of things I never thought I would do [as a winemaker].”
For the Smith-Anderson Wine Group, their newest venture in wastewater tech was also unexpected. Senior winemaker Don Baker was casually flipping through his mail when he saw messaging for a system called BioGill, and started doing research purely out of curiosity.
“Maintenance is really low,” he said. “You just turn it on and it goes to the top of the tower and wiggles down the water like how fish take oxygen from their gills.”
The BioGill technology essentially uses tiny ceramic gills to promote oxygen flow for the microorganisms which then clean up the water. It exists in different shapes and sizes — which is part of what drew Baker to the company — and Smith-Anderson will be installing multiple BioGill treatment towers at their new storage facility in Olivehurst, near Yuba City.
Baker says these towers will be 10 by 10 feet, and he is optimistic about their efficacy for the new facility.
“It will change everything,” he said.
Other systems, like the EcoVolt system, can also be introduced in a winery with multiple purposes. For Rombauer Vineyards, this meant using their EcoVolt to treat their wastewater and to generate renewable electricity and heat. Designed by Cambrian Innovation, Rombauer installed this system back in 2017.
But with all of these different options on the market, it can be daunting to pick one system — especially one this pricey and important. For Grant Long Jr. of Aonair Wine, he decided to take his time (and a chance) when picking a wastewater treatment option.
“When we bought the winery that we now call Aonair back in late 2014 early 2015, one of the major issues with the winery was the new requirements for wastewater disposal,” he said. “We had looked at a multitude of options which were at the time standard, like the live system or the MBBR system, and they are all great systems with hundreds of installs across wine country, but one of the bigger issues we had was understanding the microbial balance that had to happen at all times.”
“It was almost like you had to have a full-time microbiologist on staff just to make sure that the system was working properly.”
When Aonair was first introduced to Biofiltro, their current wastewater treatment system, they were an international company looking to make a break into the Napa market.
“Quite frankly, when hearing about their system, it almost sounded like it couldn't work,” said Long. “It was too simple … it sounded like too much of a solution.”
The “solution” Long is talking about? Earthworms.
The Biofiltro system relies on the casting bacteria that comes from the worms, and wastewater is filtered through three distinct layers. The first has the worms, wood shavings and microbes, the second has crushed rock, and below is the drainage basin to catch the water.
In that first level, the worms and microbes digest and remove wastewater contaminants, and within four hours that water will be ready to use as irrigation or it can be pumped back into the sewer system.
“It is a constant system, so as the water goes down the drain, it goes up through the system and irrigates,” said Long. “It is a pretty quick system turnaround for us.”
Biofiltro manages all of the system’s functioning and maintenance from afar with a camera system and comes out to the winery every three years to remove the worm castings.
“It has truly been an amazing system for us, both in simplicity and it being an essentially chemical-free system,” said Long. “The issues we encountered were really just the county being faced with a new set of wastewater options and it took them a while to come around ... The end result is that with data from my winery and surrounding wineries, they were able to prove that it is safe and provides the same level of results.”
The fact that this system eliminates the need for chemicals by relying on worm-power outweighed the temporary issues of smell and tracking down hyper-specific sprinkler heads, which Long says have since been resolved. He says they have even started the application process for another Biofiltro system for the brand’s sister winery.
“My hope is that there are another 100 [wineries] that find out about this system and further explore it,” he said. “The existing systems for me a few years ago were very cumbersome and intimidating, [and] the actual subject of wastewater, in general, is directly tied to the water issues in our farming communities.”
“If people can find more ways to chemical-free clean up our watersheds, the more success our valley is going to have.”
You can reach Sam Jones at 707-256-2221 and sjones@napanews.com.
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Ballentine Vineyards is one of the Napa Valley wineries with their own on-site moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) wastewater treatment system.
While it doesn't look like much, the pictured tanks comprise the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) system at Ballentine Vineyards, and pump thousands of gallons of water every day.
By treating its wastewater, Ballentine Vineyards is able to irrigate while still limiting their water use.
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