Statewide General Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs) for Wineries

Enrollment

The enrollment section will be updated with related information as it becomes available.

Who is required to enroll in the Winery Order?

Facilities currently producing (or plan to produce) wine or grape juice and discharge between 10,000 and 15,000,000 gallons of process water per year to land (e.g., to a pond, land application area, or subsurface disposal area). If your facility conducts other operations or uses other disposal methods, additional permits may be required; please consult your local regional water board.

What are the enrollment steps and requirements?

Winery Order Notice of Intent Help Guide – provides instructions for completing the eNOI, submitting the application fee payment, providing the Legally Responsible Official application signature, and submitting the application.

Part 1: Complete the Electronic Notice of Intent (eNOI)

Not sure if enrollment is required? Use the Winery Order Eligibility Survey for assistance in determining the applicability of the Winery Order to your facility.

Eligibility Survey Help Guide

Part 2: Application Fee Payment and Signature:

• Pay the associated application fee. The application fee is also the first annual fee.
• Submit the Winery Order eNOI and obtain the Legally Responsible Official’s signature.
• Email or mail a signed copy of the submitted Winery Order eNOI to your local regional water board.

Fee Schedule and Payments

On July 6, 2021, the State Water Board adopted the Winery Order fee schedule to the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 23, Division 3, Chapter 9. Waste Discharge Reports and Requirements, Article 1. Fees, Sections 2200-2200.9. Annual Fee Schedules.

For the current fee schedule, see the Water Quality Fees Program Page.

What if a facility has existing, active permit coverage (e.g., individual WDRs, regional water board general order)? When transferring from an existing permit to the Winery Order, you do not need to pay the Winery Order application fee. The annual fee paid for your current permit satisfies the application fee requirement. If this is the case, please contact your regional water board when you submit your application.

Questions? Contact your local regional water board to discuss (e.g., what is the tier for my facility, how much is the fee, where do I mail a check payment, what is the application fee for a facility with current WDRs).

How To Pay

Visit the Make a Payment page.

For more detailed step-by-step instructions, please view the Fee Payment Guide.

Note “FA-" followed by the Form ID associated with a Facility’s eNOI on the check, electronic Automated Clearing House (ACH) bank account debit payment, or ACH credit card payment.

If payment is for more than one facility:

• Payments by Check: indicate all Form IDs on the memo line
• Payments by ACH bank account debit payment, or ACH credit card payment: add a new line item for each facility.

For questions about fees or invoicing, please contact the Fee Branch at: FeeBranch@waterboards.ca.gov.

For questions about the Winery Order, please contact the State Water Board at DWQ-Winery@waterboards.ca.gov or contact your local regional water board.

• Waste Discharge Requirements Program Contact Information
• Find your local regional water board: State and Regional Water Boards Map Tool

• Winery Order: Guidance Compliance Calendar Tool
• Winery Order: Pond Lining Guidance
• Winery Order: Guidance Examples for Flow Measurements and Biochemical Oxygen Demand Calculations for Land Application Areas
• Winery Order: Example Requirement Matrices
• Geotracker: Electronic Submittal of Information Help Guide
• Statewide Winery General Order April 2021 overview presentation recording on YouTube. Please email staff at DWQ-Winery@waterboards.ca.gov for a copy of the presentation.

Winegrowing Organizations

• Wine Institute – Compliance Guidance Sheets per Tier
• California Association of Winegrape Growers
• California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance

Summer 2024 Regional Water Quality Control Board Winery Order Webinar Series Notice

DISCLAIMER: To comply with Assembly Bill Number 434 - State Web Accessibility, the slide files below will look different than those presented and shown in the recordings (e.g., removal of decorative images, reformatting, etc.). The written content presented is included.

• State Water Board Summer 2024 Slides
• Central Coast July 11, 2024 Slides | Recording
• North Coast July 30, 2024 Slides | Recording
• San Francisco Bay August 22, 2024 Slides | Recording
• Napa County August 27, 2024 Slides | Recording
• Central Valley September 10, 2024 Slides | Recording
• San Diego September 12, 2024 Slides | Recording

August 2022-2023, State Water Resources Control Board staff mailed over 3,000 outreach letters to California wine businesses to provide information about the Winery Order eligibility and enrollment.

March 12, 2021, a notice was transmitted to the public for virtual State Water Board (Board) staff webinars on implementation of the adopted General Waste Discharge Requirements for Winery Process Water (Winery Order) scheduled for April 2021. Staff held a series of outreach webinars to provide information on and answer questions for the implementation of the Winery Order on April 8th, 21st, and 23rd of 2021 via Zoom.

  Please email staff at DWQ-Winery@waterboards.ca.gov for a copy of the presentation, or   view the recorded session on YouTube.

January 19, 2021, a fourth updated public notice was transmitted to the public to ensure clarity to the public on the January 20, 2021 Board Meeting start time.

January 7, 2021, a third updated Public Notice was transmitted to the public to change the date the Ex Parte communication prohibition went into effect from January 6, 2021 to January 13, 2021.

December 17, 2020, an updated Public Notice was transmitted to the public changing the Board meeting from January 5, 2021 to January 20, 2021.

October 29, 2020, a revised Public Notice was transmitted to the public changing the Board meeting to consider adoption from November 27, 2020 to December 15, 2020. On December 2, 2020, the revised draft Winery Order and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Initial Study and Mitigated Negative Declaration were transmitted to the public in response to comment and an updated Public Notice changing the Board meeting from December 15, 2020 to January 5, 2021.

July 3, 2020, the draft Winery Order was transmitted to the public for comment and additionally noticed a July 22, 2020 public workshop, and the future proposed adoption of the draft Winery Order. The draft Winery Order incorporates comments from partners on the 2019 administrative draft documents.

  Link to Comment Letter File Share Site
Instructions: open link, go to the folder path: 2020 > August > 080520_Winery GO

February 11, 2019, an administrative draft of the Winery Order was transmitted to the public for informal comments; the informal comment period closed April 5, 2019.

Board staff held outreach meetings between April and August of 2019 in Hopland, Lodi, Napa, San Luis Obispo, and Temecula.

The Statewide General Waste Discharge Requirements for Winery Process Water (Winery Order) sets criteria for facilities that meet the necessary requirements to be considered “exempt”.

Although the facility may not be required to enroll in the Winery Order, other Water Boards (State Water Resources Control Board and the regional water quality control boards) regulatory program enrollment may be required depending on facility operations (e.g., National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Wastewater Permits, NPDES Industrial Stormwater General Permits, other Waste Discharge Requirements, or Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program, etc.).

Facilities may operate in accordance with the guidelines below, but may still pose a threat to water quality due to a high concentration of similar discharges in the same watershed or due to its location where groundwater quality is already degraded and more stringent discharge limits are in effect. If these conditions may apply, the Water Boards may require the Discharger to enroll in the Winery Order. The Discharger is encouraged to contact the State Water Board for more information at DWQ-Winery@waterboards.ca.gov

To be considered exempt, a winery must produce less than 10,000 gallons of process water per year and agree to the following criteria. Please read the Winery Order for more detail.

1. The Discharger shall not discharge waste:
   • To surface waters or surface water drainage courses.
   • That is classified as "hazardous," as defined in California Code of Regulations (CCR), title 23, division 3, chapter 15, article 2, section 2521, or classified as "designated," as defined in Water Code, division 7, chapter 3, section 13173.
   • That is untreated or partially treated from the treatment system.
   • To land not owned, operated, controlled, or contracted by the Discharger.
2. The Discharger shall implement the following management practices:
   • Manage winery product, winery waste, and winery waste areas (e.g., storage, loading, conveyance, treatment, and disposal areas) to prevent, mitigate, and promptly clean up any spills.
   • Maintain all winery waste within property boundaries and within appropriate onsite use areas (e.g., loading, processing, storage, treatment, disposal, and reuse areas).
   • Manage winery waste to minimize nuisance conditions (e.g., objectionable odors; mosquitoes in ponds, ditches, and other open storage areas).
   • Manage stormwater that contacts winery waste as process water. Protect stored process solids from precipitation to minimize process water generation.

A winery may be asked to provide documentation that substantiates a discharger’s compliance with these criteria in obtaining a local use permit from a county or city permitting authority. The Water Boards are not required to review or provide exemption certifications. Therefore, the winery will need to work directly with the county or city permitting authority on the required documentation.

References

Hazardous waste is referenced in the CCR title 23 reference, which refers to Title 22 CCR, division 4.5, chapter 11, article 1 section 66261.3 for the core definition.

• Title 23, section 2521

“Designated waste” means either of the following:

• (a) Hazardous waste that has been granted a variance from hazardous waste management requirements pursuant to Section 25143 of the Health and Safety Code.
• (b) Nonhazardous waste that consists of, or contains, pollutants that, under ambient environmental conditions at a waste management unit, could be released in concentrations exceeding applicable water quality objectives or that could reasonably be expected to affect beneficial uses of the waters of the state as contained in the appropriate state water quality control plan.

Waste Discharge Requirements Winery Order General Contact: DWQ-Winery@waterboards.ca.gov