Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
An overflow crowd spilled into the lobby at California State Senator Mike McGuire’s August 13 promised Town Hall. Many were alarmed by an article at the top of the front-page of the prior day’s pro-wine industry local daily newspaper.
"Wine Industry’s ‘Water Grab’" headlined the Press Democrat (PD) story. It described legislation being drafted that would secure unfair water rights and control of water for the wine industry in the Russian River watershed.
After listening to two articulate politicians and four staff members for nearly two hours, as the meeting was coming to a close, McGuire finally mentioned, in passing, that pending bill. These six speakers provided important information about parks, infrastructure, policing, and other subjects. But they did not address the elephant in the room--the main issue that many had come to discuss.
Authentic Town Halls are a great American tradition. At the ones this reporter covered in New England, politicians allowed ample time for townies to speak to them, not just ask brief questions. That was not the case with McGuire’s Town Hall, where the audience was spoken down to, until one woman demanded to be heard.
McGuire is a smart, skillful, and humorous politician who tightly controlled the meeting. The unexpectedly-large turnout indicates that a mass movement appears to be growing to challenge the Sonoma County Wine Empire’s excesses.
CONSTITUENTS EXPRESS DISAPPOINTMENT
“I raised my hand numerous times, was never called on, had to leave at 8:40, and felt angry, a bit despondent, and stifled,” commented Pamela Singer of the four-county Wine and Water Watch (WWW).
This group of concerned environmentalist citizens from the adjacent at-risk Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Mendocino counties has met monthly for half a year. Its mission: “We challenge the over-development of the wine tourism industry and promote ethical land and water use. We advocate agricultural practices that are ecologically regenerative.”
“Mike McGuire gave little to no importance to the proposed bill by bringing it up at the meeting’s end, when people were tired, fed up, and ready to go home. I do not believe that he wants ‘both sides to come to the table,’” as he claims, WWW’s Singer added.
“Once again, a politician provided the public with obfuscation in order to not deal with or really hear what is important to citizens. Instead of hosting a real Town Hall, six folks spent two hours spewing out irrelevant statistics,” said Preserve Rural Sonoma County’s Reuben Weinsveg.
“McGuire acted like a TV game show host,” said WWW activist Ellen Zebrowski.
“The State Water Board ordered residential water users to cut back by 25% in four major Russian River tributary watersheds,” wrote Will Parrish in the July 29 AVA (Anderson Valley Advertiser), based in nearby Mendocino County. “The wine industry, which is the biggest cause of the decline of these creeks, does not have to cut back on water use.” How fair is that?
“The inherent unfairness of this order prompted roughly 1,000 outraged Sonomans to fill the halls at four Water Board meetings earlier this month,” Parrish added in his “Wine Industry Water Grab?” article, which introduced the term “water grab.”
Vineyards and wineries can currently take all the water from streams and their deep wells that they want, without enforceable regulations. This causes some streams to dry up, salmon and other fish to die, and rural wells to pump air when a vineyard moves in next door.
“A ROBUST LOCAL PUBLIC PROCESS”
The Wine Empire’s attempt to create and control a special Irrigation District was finally mentioned near the scheduled end of the meeting. A brave woman stood up and boldly demanded that the pending bill be addressed and that audience members be allowed to do more than ask brief questions, as McGuire held a microphone to their faces.
McGuire had asked for a “robust local public process,” so she gave it to him, opening the space for a real Town Hall on the issue that many people had come to address and patiently waited for their time to speak.
Sacramento attorney Peter Kiel wrote the bill’s draft, which would create a special Russian River Irrigation District to take over from state regulations and management. He sometimes works for three of the top ten wine corporations in the US—E&J Gallo, Constellation Brands, and Kendall-Jackson.
United Winegrowers executive director Bob Anderson presented that draft to McGuire, who claims to have sent it “to all interested parties.” But he only named one environmental group, the Russian Riverkeepers. Its executive director Don McEnhill is quoted in the PD article as saying that the draft “pretty much carved out a place for agriculture and didn’t address other users of water.”
The draft was not sent to other environmental groups, such as Sonoma County Conservation Action, Preserve Rural Sonoma County, and the four-county group Wine and Water Watch (WWW).
“McGuire neglected to include a very important stakeholder, the residential well owners. There are 20,000 well owners in Sonoma County,” noted Judith Olney, chair of the Westside Community Association Advisory Group.
Winegrowers moan and present themselves as victims. Anderson says the wine industry merely wants “a seat at the table.” They certainly deserve that, but not most of the seats, even though they have most of the money and most of the agricultural acreage, some of which has been paved over for their parking lots and wineries as event centers hosting weddings and other non-ag events.
Over 60,000 acres of the mono-crop wine grapes exists, with only about 12,000 acres of food crops in Sonoma County. The wine tourism/hospitality industry does not deserve that 6 to 1 ratio of seats at the table, even if they share their wealth with politicians.
The wine barons act as if they are wine stars and entitled; government officials treat them as if they were nobility. Meanwhile, politicians receive donations for their million-dollar campaigns to be elected and re-elected.
Starting with a bill drafted by Big Wine with its inherent conflict of interest is not the way to begin. In the interests of fairness, McGuire could have had his staff and advisors draft a bill that would then be vetted by neighborhood groups, ag interests, wine representatives, environmental groups, and water experts. This would have been a balanced approach, rather than one weighted towards wine interests.
At least the current draft should be easily available, since it has been circulated to a few since March. McGuire said that it is not yet available online. So much for transparency and the inclusion of the public. We signed into the meeting, so he has our email addresses and easily could send out the draft, unless he has something to hide.
To his credit, Sen. McGuire committed himself as follows: “There is not going to be a bill unless a need is proven and a consensus is arrived at between agriculture and the environmentalists.” Time will tell. The growing mass movement will hold him to that commitment.
(Dr. Shepherd Bliss {[email protected]} teaches college part-time, has farmed for 24 years, and has contributed to two-dozen books.)
More information:
https://www.facebook.com/preserveruralsonomacounty
https://www.preserveruralsonomacounty.org
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
:stoptheinsane:
I BOYCOTT ALL CALIFORNIA WINE until they NOT ONLY stop wasting precious Water but ALSO using pesticides...personally i am tired of making "compromise" with these arrogant PERVERTS! A word that is NOT used enough to describe this kind of wanton disregard for anything but their own selfish profit!
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
Okey dokey, pixee. I, on the other hand, feel so lucky to live in the world's finest grape growing region. The wine made here is so good I could drink it every day, and usually do. Wine is made in all 50 states, you can move anywhere you like. Or just be an angry tee-totaller, it is your life after all.
Cheers!!
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by pixeee nation:
I BOYCOTT ALL CALIFORNIA WINE until...
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
the choice is NOW - between wine and water.
wells are running dry daily, streams ceasing to flow.
when you turn on your tap, and you have to buy water - delivered in huge trucks to tanks which need to be bought, installed, maintained - you will think back to this time.
the supervisors grant permits, the vineyard owners plant and profit, the insanity continues.
to make light of this is utterly foolish and corrupt.
WATER IS LIFE.
using OUR water for wine to the detriment of the rest of life here is inexcusable.
soberly, jude
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by jbox:
Okey dokey, pixee. I, on the other hand, feel so lucky to live in the world's finest grape growing region. The wine made here is so good I could drink it every day, and usually do. Wine is made in all 50 states, you can move anywhere you like. Or just be an angry tee-totaller, it is your life after all.
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
letter to the Press Democrat, 8/21:
Irrigation district plan
EDITOR: I’m alarmed by the wine industry’s intent to create its own irrigation district comprising five Russian River watersheds without the public knowing how residents, farms and ecosystems that share the same watersheds fit into this plan (“Wine industry plan called ‘water grab,’ ” Aug. 13). Obviously the industry wants to ensure its supply of water during the current and, most likely, future droughts but, so do the rest of us.
Wineries and vineyards continue to expand extensively. Just in my neighborhood, vineyards have tripled in the past 10 years, and I have seen the wildlife and natural beauty of the area decline, and now we worry about water. I don’t know of any residents who would sacrifice and care to depreciate the value of their own property for the benefit of an unrelated enterprise.
I hope that our local and state officials are taking a serious look at the long-term impact of the proposed irrigation district and ensure the fair distribution of water during the drought. Our elected officials shouldn’t allow this issue to become a major conflict between the wine industry and the watersheds’ residents and the organizations that look after our rural environment.
JACQUELINE SCHAEL
Sebastopol
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
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Close to Home: Keeping the grape debate in perspective
by Gabriel Froymovich
(Gabriel Froymovich, a resident of Healdsburg, is founder of Vineyard Financial Associates.)
August 21, 2015
Sonoma County’s wine industry has grown from just one part of a diverse agricultural landscape to a dominant force in our lives. It has become important enough that industry volatility can significantly affect the county’s economy.
Vineyard acreage has roughly doubled in the past 20-25 years. I make my living as a financial consultant for the wine business, but I’m concerned about the way wine and associated tourism are changing the face of my town — Healdsburg — and my county, a personal Holy Land for me.
Lately, though, some have cast blanket aspersions on the industry. Sadly, many of the industry’s loudest critics have been peddling in falsehoods and misleading the public. In order to have a useful discussion, we should base it in reality.
No doubt, as with virtually every other human endeavor, vineyards have caused serious environmental harm. Unlike most other industries, however, Sonoma County’s growers are making voluntary and concerted efforts to reduce environmental impacts. Roughly one-third of our vineyard acreage is now certified sustainable by a third party. Sonoma County Winegrowers’ ambitious and laudable goal is 100 percent countywide, certified, vineyard sustainability. How does this reconcile with accusations that grape growers are “replacing apple orchards with industrial vineyards, while continuing to use poisonous pesticides” and “killing all organisms”? It doesn’t.
I requested pesticide use reports for a sample of vineyards and apple orchards. Organic apples and organic grapes tend to be sprayed with 75-85 applications of mostly mild chemicals, like oils and minerals. Conventional vineyards are similar, but with a few sprays of more toxic, but still relatively mild chemicals mixed in.
Conventional apple orchards, on the other hand, apply roughly 10 sprays, but use highly toxic chemicals such as Imidan, Danitol and chlorpyrifos. Though vineyard plantings have crowded out many apple orchards, an important part of our county’s heritage, this has significantly reduced the application of the most dangerous toxins near our homes.
Recently, a claim was made in this newspaper [PeeDee] that Sonoma County wine is dominated by frightening conglomerates including Altria, Foster’s and Brown-Forman. This is quite the fib. Nearly all Altria’s wine assets are in Washington and Oregon. As far as I know, its owns only one vineyard in the county, which is leased to Kendall Jackson. Brown-Forman’s only wine asset is Sonoma-Cutrer. Foster’s owns no wine assets at all.
Though our county’s wine industry does include some heavyweights, such as Gallo and Jackson Family, it is a diverse industry characterized by small businesses. With 255,635 tons of grapes grown in 2015 and 1,099 winegrower permits, we can assume an average winery production of less than 12,000 cases annually. Some 40 percent of our vineyards are smaller than 20 acres, and only 20 percent are more than 100 acres. Of the county’s top 25 employers, only one, Korbel, is a winery. Almost all others are dwarfed in size by two beloved and highly successful local companies, Lagunitas Brewing Co. and Amy’s Kitchen.
The wine industry does dominate our agriculture industry, producing more than 70 percent of our agricultural sales. On the other hand, vineyards occupy only 13 percent of the county’s agricultural land. Yes, in some areas of the county we have a grape-based monoculture, but for every acre of grapes, Sonoma County boasts almost seven acres of pastureland or other crops.
How do these facts reconcile with the claim that our industry is akin to Big Oil? They don’t. So let’s put the false narratives aside. Mendacious hyperboles might make for great opinion articles, but they don’t make for great policy debates. They don’t make for great neighbors, and they won’t make for a great county to call home.
Gabriel Froymovich, a resident of Healdsburg, is founder of Vineyard Financial Associates.
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Sara S:
Please consider responding to this PD article today by a member of the Wine Empire, either online or by a letter to the editor. Fortunately, today's PD also has the following letter to the editor.
Note how the writer of the PD column supports the wine industry being "a dominant force in our lives." Personally, I prefer not to be dominated or forced. I am including the link to this PD article, in case you feel like responding.
Shepherd
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by jbox:
Okey dokey, pixee. I, on the other hand, feel so lucky to live in the world's finest grape growing region. The wine made here is so good I could drink it every day, and usually do. Wine is made in all 50 states, you can move anywhere you like. Or just be an angry tee-totaller, it is your life after all. Cheers!!
You may choose to drink your bloody SoCo wine but those of us who want a future here, if you were listening, need water to live. A bit more important than choosing red or white. Common sense says, oh, dry farm. Don't be greedy. My entire yard is brown now except the native plants. It Burns me when I see these vast water gluttons -grapes and golf courses, and dairy and Ag watering in peak afternoon hours, sucking it out of the land and destroying habitat.. Golf courses are a luxury and if you close them now, they can always come back when conditions are right for them. Now is the time to act as a community. Balance, not polarization. Narrow minded comments that insult are childish and nonproductive.
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
Bravo. I'll drink to this: "Now is the time to act as a community. Balance, not polarization."
Re: Water Grab by Sonoma County's Wine Empire
Quote:
Posted in reply to the post by Shepherd:
...Note how the writer of the PD column supports the wine industry being "a dominant force in our lives." Personally, I prefer not to be dominated or forced. ...
Aww, come on Shepherd, lighten up. The author employed some loose syntax but she didn't go so far as to "support" the wine industry being a dominant force in our lives. See the following post by V2B4evre to see what so much polarization can yield.
The Wine Industry-letter to the Press Democrat
EDITOR: Gabriel Froymovich, a wine industry financial adviser, cries “mendacious hyperbole” in response to winery critics (“Keeping the grape debate in perspective,” Close to home, Aug. 22).
Let’s look at some facts. Sustainability? According to him, “roughly one-third” of wineries are sustainable. That leaves 66 percent that are not. How is dumping nearly 2 million of the approximately 2.25 million pounds of chemicals into our air, land and water in a year (2012 analysis of county data) sustainable? How sustainable is the wine industry’s unregulated water grab in a drought?
Then there’s the fuzzy math he used to claim that wineries average “less than 12,000 cases annually.” Here are actual statistics from the county. Out of the 384 permits issued as of June 2014 (the most recent report I saw online) Gallo, Clos du Bois and Sonoma West Holdings top the list with 11.7 million cases (27 percent). In fact, 12 wineries (1 percent) were permitted for production of 1 million or more cases of wine, 70 percent of the total production capacity. The number of permits issued to those producing 12,000 or fewer cases per year (60 percent), accounted for just under 2 percent of production in the county. Now who’s lying?
NANCY PALANDATI
Guerneville
