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Charivari (Spring 1998)Water Resources Control Board is at it again!by Wilhelm Franke The California Water Resources Control Board has found another convenient source of revenue: the wineries. Reclassified as "industrial areas," wineries are now required to pay a General Permit fee for storm water run-off. While the reclassification was handed down to the states by the federal EPA, the amount of the fees were determined at the state and county levels. Most counties in California have chosen to assess the wineries at $500 per year regardless of production size. A boutique winery producing 1,000 cases per year is assessed the same fee as a 500,000 case winery. This is yet another senseless nickel-and-dime extortionist tactic aimed at the state’s burgeoning wine industry. An "industry" whose storm water "runoff" has no impact on the quality of our water. Need more money? Tap the wineries. Justification? None needed—it’s government business. Appeal the fee? Too costly to fight. According to state Water Resources Control Board documentation: "It does not matter that a winery’s primary raw materials are grapes, that most or all of the harvesting/crushing occurs seasonally, or that rainfall seldom occurs during the harvesting/crushing season." Wine production and storm water runoff are nonsequitur—they have no synergistic effects because nothing more than a drop or two of grape juice (as the rain washes over the vines) ever "runs off" the property. Perhaps the anti-wine zealots on the board don’t want any of that "sissy a— Chardonnay juice mixing with and defiling the oil and sludge from city parking lots and residential driveways" as it drains into our water system. Military bases, with all their heavy equipment and toxic waste, are exempt from paying the General Permit fees unless they have civilian facilities on the base. And then it is one $500 for the entire base! There is no logic to that. Perhaps the added cost of filtering storm water runoff from heavy industry and large oil covered parking lots is now being paid for by our wineries. Or perhaps this new revenue stream has been allocated for someone’s pet project or another fascist bureaucratic social plea. How will the county use this money to improve the quality of our local water? After several calls to both the state and county offices, a clear explanation has yet to be given. California’s wine industry is directly and indirectly responsible for millions of dollars in economic benefit to the state—at all levels as well as both the public and private sectors. The growing popularity of Australian wine—on a global scale—is a result not only of improved wine making techniques but wide-spread Australian government support of that industry. In California, we continue to face senseless battles with a neo-prohibition consciousness among our government agencies. We are continually squeezed for more and more. We all pay generous taxes, tariffs and fees to government agencies to represent us. To assess unjustified fees to an ultra clean industry that pumps millions of dollars into our local economies rather than go after the real polluters is quite simply . . . bullying. Too afraid of heavy industry’s political clout to place blame and subsequent responsibility for unsafe water where it belongs, the Water Resources Control Board has bludgeoned the small wineries because they’re defenseless—easy prey. The majority of the state’s wineries are small independent businesses whose owners and wine makers remain in the industry because of a passion for wine making and a healthy respect for the natural environment. There are no government-funded farm subsidies for vineyards. Only a growing list of financial assessments and acts of harassment. Wineries pay for expensive water filtering equipment in order to have quality water used in the production of wine. Is this due to grape juice runoff into our water systems? No. The wineries are made to be the scapegoat for the Water Resources Control Board’s inability to provide quality water to all its customers. Simply because wine has—historically—been called "nectar of the gods," should not mean that wineries be made to pay for El Niño’s storm water runoff. Or maybe every man, woman and child should drink only wine and to hell with water. We all have a stake in clean water. So let's look at who the real polluters are: We, the people, are the polluters. Public highways, parking lots littered with soiled disposable diapers and cigarette butts, city streets, and yes, our private driveways. Most winery working areas have less pollution than the average kitchen table. And no sissy a-- Chardonnay juice comes close to the pollution of the grime, condoms and gunk along the curbs of city streets. But imagine the outcry if the real polluters (anyone parking a car outside) were hammered with a $500 assessment. Let's face it, $500 is a lot of money for most people. And owners of small wineries are included in this group. It's $500 today, it was $500 for some outrageous scheme yesterday, and it will be $500 tomorrow to feed the ever-growing, insatiable bureaucracies. Remember that back in the cheering section for big government are the Neo-Probes who feel it is their Holy duty to thwart all forms of wine production, and its sinful makers, at any cost. Written by Wilhelm Franke: Spring 1998 Issue |
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