Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources announced on Thursday that it is fining Four Quarters Brewery in Winooski $5,035 for violating its wastewater permit.
According to the Thursday announcement, Four Quarters dumped more than 33,000 gallons of untreated wastewater from September 2021 through July 2022 into Winooski’s Wastewater Treatment Facility.
The brewery neglected to submit its required “management plan” and failed to file its monthly monitoring reports under the brewery’s wastewater permit, according to the Department of Environmental Conservation.
“Without proper pretreatment, the discharges pose an unnecessary risk of contaminating our lakes, ponds, rivers, streams and wetlands,” John Beling, commissioner of environmental conservation, wrote in Thursday’s announcement.
Wastewater treatment is especially important for breweries because the content of their wastewater differs because of the brewing process. Nick Giannetti, pretreatment coordinator at the Department of Environmental Conservation, spoke with VTDigger in 2019 about the unique impact of breweries in Vermont’s watersheds.
“It exerts a much higher demand on the wastewater treatment facility,” Giannetti said.
Because brewing involves more organic ingredients than a normal residential building, the wastewater carries more organic materials as well, which translates to high-strength wastewater, Gianetti said.
Four Quarters has agreed to pay the fine and has brought its practices into compliance with its wastewater permit.
Breweries such as Four Quarters have become a cornerstone of the state’s economy, creating a $316 million impact on the state’s economy in 2019, according to the Agency of Food Agriculture and Markets. As brewing has become a staple of the Vermont economy, the question of the impact of breweries on the state’s environmental health is pertinent to the growing industry.
In 2019, the Vermont Brewshed Alliance launched under the Vermont Natural Resources Council as an effort to encourage a positive relationship between the state’s breweries and Vermont’s environmental well-being.
“It’s a way to highlight that environmental protection and economic development are not mutually exclusive,” Brain Shupe, executive director of the natural resources council, told VTDigger in 2019. “They are actually reliant on each other.”
Water has a crucial relationship to breweries on both sides of making a pint. Breweries themselves rely on clean water. In 2015, it took three to seven barrels of water to produce just one barrel of beer, according to The University of Vermont.
On its site, the Brewshed Alliance states that its organization is “a partnership between breweries, pubs, and (Vermont Natural Resources Council) to engage our members and their patrons in protecting the clean water we all depend on.”
Founding breweries of the alliance include Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Magic Hat Brewing Company and Alchemist Beer, according to the natural resources council.
Four Quarters could not be reached for comment.