Bill Hocker | Sep 2, 2014

The wine industry needs to seek profits that don't derive from tourism and its negative impacts. RIght now the food-rich waste water from the wineries is being trucked to Oakland for disposal since the county's wastewater treatment system is not capable of handling that much solid waste. An article about the problem is here.

Oakland turns this rich waste water into methane gas which it then uses to generate electricity which it sell to PG&E producting a profit. An article on the process is here. It is an amazing example of green technology at work.

Napa with its ready supply of winery waste and its ever increasing supply of restaurant waste should be in the perfect position to create an energy surplus in their own energy generation wastewater treatment facility especially since they already have one co-energy digester. The county needs to make the investment necessary to make co-energy production a profit center.

NVR Nov 2014: Study: Treating winery waste in Napa faces hurdles
Jan 2015: Winery Waste Public Forum announcement

copyright © sodacanyonroad.org