WHAT’S NOT IN YOUR GLASS THE UNTOLD STORY OF DISTILLERY WASTEWATER WRITTEN BY COLLEEN GRINHAM
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hen we take a sip of our favorite craft cocktail or whisky on the rocks, we often think “Who made that particular batch?”, “Are whisky stones truly better than ice?”, or “Next time, maybe one more dash of bitters?” Seldom do we think, “Wow, this process must have generated wastewater that was high in organics and solids and definitely needed some type of pretreatment before it could be sent to the municipality.” Like all food and beverage manufacturing, wastewater is an inherent by-product, and craft spirits are no exception. There are two types of wastewater that are generated at any given distillery: sanitary and industrial. Sanitary wastewater or “domestic wastewater” is from human or household sources such as toilets, kitchens, laundry, showers, and other plumbing fixtures. Industrial wastewater is generated during manufacturing or processing. Most often, sanitary wastewater is segregated from industrial wastewater and discharged without treatment to the sewer collection system.
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LIKE ALL FOOD AND BEVERAGE MANUFACTURING, WASTEWATER IS AN INHERENT BY-PRODUCT, AND CRAFT SPIRITS ARE NO EXCEPTION. Industrial wastewater is generated from washdowns and sanitations, off-spec batches, stillage, often utility wastewater such as boiler blowdown, and water treatment by-products (i.e., RO brine). Depending on flow and load of the wastewater, the distillery could be identified as a significant industrial user (SIU) per the local sewer use ordinance. This could require the wastewater to be collected and treated prior to being discharged into the municipal sewer collection system.1 To help distilleries and other beer, wine, and spirits manufacturers easily identify what type of industrial pretreatment is required — if any — we embarked on a wastewater sampling experiment. Working with spirits manufacturers in whiskey, rye, bourbon, and rum production, individual samples representing
discharge under normal operations were collected and analyzed by our partner, Eurofins. Samples were tested for typical wastewater constituents commonly found in industrial pretreatment discharge permits, including solids, organics, and
1 https://www.wef.org/contentassets/3b3dff329773488aa98f6c7680e8eaa8/ss-fact-sheetwith-wider-margins-1.pdf
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