» No more bad vintages?

» Wine 'big' business in Asia

» 'Killer virus covered up'

» Wine farm purifies H²O

» BA to hike fuel levy

» Make them eat healthy

» A mighty protest tool

» Save earth, save money

» Tears and truffles

» Useless gadgets

Today, 03 May 2008

Yesterday, 02 May 2008

» Tears and truffles

» Feel-good times

» Stranded by Nationwide?

» 'Tough times ahead'

» The rice and fall of Bali

Durbanville Hills is one of the first cellars in the Western Cape to recover and purify waste water in an attempt to reuse water in a sustainable manner. The cellar commissioned an environmentally-friendly effluent water treatment plant in an effort to recover and purify waste water for irrigation purposes.

The process starts with the cellar's effluent being discharged by gravity into a receiver tank after which the existing mechanical screen removes the solid material, such as pips and skins, and directs the effluent to a flow-balancing tank. Here the water's pH levels is balanced, nutrients are added and aerated in a single activated sludge bioreactor. The clean water is then pumped to the irrigation dam to supply water to one of the adjacent farms.

More environmentally friendly

Cellarmaster, Martin Moore, says that in any winery waste water is one of the major problems and poses the most significantly environmental risk.

"The low energy biological treatment plant is the final stage in our effort to conserve water. Before installing the plant we already used screens in every drain in order to trap skins, pips and other solids. The water passed through a final screen that retain solids that might have slipped through, before passing through sedimentation tanks to a final pH adjustment tank. From there it was pumped to an evaporation dam.

"The addition of the new plant replacing the evaporation dam includes an aerobic respirator that microbiologically treats and aerates the water to ensure that the final product holds no risk to the environment."

Martin also says that with the new dam completed they have also started looking at how they can reduce their carbon footprint.

"The fermentation process produces a lot of carbon dioxide that escapes into the atmosphere. In addition to vineyards planted in front of the cellar almost up to the front door we also established 4ha of olive trees at the back, all doing their level best to convert carbon dioxide to oxygen."

Since its inception in 1999, the cellar strived to operate as eco-friendly as possible. Durbanville Hills was assessed by the SABS in 2004 and the environmental management system had been found to comply with the requirements of the Environmental Standard ISO 14001.