What an amazing thing...recycling 70% of winery water used. This is the performance achieved by Gundlach Bundschu’s water reclamation ponds. The system is a series of ponds and wetlands that takes all of the process water used in the winery and naturally filters it to be reused to irrigate the winery. They've achieved this high recycling performance quite easily with their system....of course some is lost to evaporation. The system is 100% solar powered by the first array of floating solar panels in Sonoma County, only the second of its kind in the world.
(Photo: Main Irrigation Pond as seen from Winery Courtyard)
Thanks to Gundlach Bundschu for providing this in-depth explanation of how the water is processed:
"As winery process is generated from harvest and winery operations the process water is collected in drains throughout the winery. As the water flows into the drains the solids are first separated using stainless steel screens. These screens are cleaned routinely to eliminate as many solids before they reach a large sump pump. This pump will pump the process water to a solids separator which will then remove any large solids such as stems, skins, wood, rocks that may have made its way through the initial screening process.
The solids separator has a screen/drum that rotates like a wheel picking up any solids mentioned above. On the end of the screen/drum is what is called a knife, basically it is a scraper arm that will wipe the solids off the drum into a bin below which will then be composted.
The water that flows through the solids separator flows into two concrete holding tanks for settling of suspended solids. As the water flows into the first tank, the fine particles fall out to the bottom of the tank as the water gravity-flows out of the top of the tank to the second tank. The second tank will do the same thing just further clarifying the water before it gravity floes the rest of the way to the treatment ponds. No electricity is used to pump the water for its 1/8 mile trip to the process ponds.
As it enters the first pond it comes in from under the water level. This allows the water to bubble up to the top. Due to the high organic content in the water, oxygen is needed to allow microorganisms to naturally breakdown the remaining suspended solids that reach pond 1. Therefore we introduce oxygen into the water with fine bubble diffusers. The 6 diffusers are located 4 feet from the bottom of the pond so that the fine bubbles can transfer the oxygen efficiently into the water feeding the organisms that eat the remaining organic matter. Most systems have what we call splash aeration. These systems are not efficient due to the fact that most of the oxygen escapes back into the atmosphere instead of transferring the oxygen to the water.
As it enters the first pond it comes in from under the water level. This allows the water to bubble up to the top. Due to the high organic content in the water, oxygen is needed to allow microorganisms to naturally breakdown the remaining suspended solids that reach pond 1. Therefore we introduce oxygen into the water with fine bubble diffusers. The 6 diffusers are located 4 feet from the bottom of the pond so that the fine bubbles can transfer the oxygen efficiently into the water feeding the organisms that eat the remaining organic matter. Most systems have what we call splash aeration. These systems are not efficient due to the fact that most of the oxygen escapes back into the atmosphere instead of transferring the oxygen to the water.
In this first pond we have a system that monitors the dissolved oxygen (DO) as well as the pH. The ideal level for DO is 2 and the ideal level for PH is 7. You may ask why these numbers are so important? If the pond drops below 2 on the DO, the organisms will not have enough oxygen to survive therefore they die. If the pH drops below 7 the water will be to acidic for the organisms to survive therefore they die. This is why it is so important to monitor your system. The monitoring system calculates readings every 10 minutes from 2 probes in the middle of the pond which sends the info back to a control panel which in turn determines the run time needed to keep the DO and pH at optimal conditions. This system is so smart that it can even run on off peak hours, saving electricity.
From the first pond the water gravity-flows into a sump that pumps the water to our wetlands area which has a 3% slope. The water is further filtered through the pea gravel on the bottom of the pond. The plants in the pond are all natural wetland plants that aid in further filtering. Ducks love this little sanctuary as well as Killdeer. Once the water naturally makes its way to the other end of the wetlands filtering its way along, it goes into another sump which then pumps the filtered water into pond 2.Pond 2 is a storage pond for the filtered water. Each of the process ponds are 13ft deep and hold 510,000 gals. The water from pond 2 is pumped back to the main reservoir located next the winery to be used once again in the vineyard. This way, we recycle 70% of our winery waste water – the other 30% is lost to evaporation off the ponds – significantly reducing the water we draw from our wells.
The system is powered by 162 Sharp solar panels on pontoons that float on pond 1. This 30kW Floatovoltaic system provides 100% of the power needed to run the water reclamation system, and is the second floating array of its kind in the world. It was designed by Thompson Technology Industries (TTI) and installed by SPG Solar, Inc. of Novato."
(Photo: Solar panels being installed on pond at Gundlach Bundschu)
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