Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/123973
MICHELLE LOCKE thing," said Paula Getzelman of Tre Gatti Vineyards, which grows grapes in southern Monterey County. Concerns center on water usage – that fracking will set up competition for a limited resource – as well as the potential for pollution. Environmental activists, on the other hand, claim that modern innovations in fracking have made it more of a risk. They say they're concerned about surface as well as groundwater pollution, and maintain that officials aren't taking adequate steps to safe- The recent auction of nearly 18,000 acres of oil leases involving land in Monterey County has local grapegrowers concerned that fracking will create competition for limited water resources. Industry officials say concerns about hydraulic fracturing are exaggerated. "In 60 years of use in California, to our knowledge no one has ever identified a risk or harm caused by hydraulic fracturing, and fracturing has taken place in areas where there is active agriculture," said Tupper Hull, spokesman for the Western States Petroleum Association. Hull said California has stringent well safety regulations to protect water, and in addition, hydraulic fracturing would be taking place thousands of feet away from groundwater, so the possibility of contamination is not a risk. As for the water competition claims, he said oil uses far less water than agriculture, and that oil producers have extensive experience in efficiently managing water. w w w. v w m media.com guard the environment. "These areas – if nothing is done and the oil companies figure out the best way to go out there and get this oil – they could be transformed overnight," said Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, which is challenging the BLM's auctions of leases on the grounds that officials failed to do environmental analyses of fracking. Growers, meanwhile, are keeping close tabs on the situation, as Getzelman said. "Our objective isn't to preclude any drilling; it really isn't because we understand that we have to be concerned about energy and energy issues. I think a lot of people would agree that we have to figure out how to do it, so that agriculture is unaffected by what they do." A push for greater food safety means that wineries now have to register with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) every two years. But that doesn't mean the FDA is taking over from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). The new rules, known as the Food Safety Modernization Act, specifically exempt alcoholic beverages from most of the new food production requirements. "The argument is that wineries are already regulated by the TTB," said Michael Kaiser, director of communications and regulatory affairs for WineAmerica, which helped draft the legislation exempting wineries. "The TTB has the jurisdiction to regulate the wine industry, and we didn't think that another agency should be involved in regulating wine." A business speaking in favor of a regulatory agency doesn't happen every day, but in this case it made sense, Kaiser said. "Our reasoning was, you already have this agency that's set up to regulate the industry. Why create more regulations when you don't have to? "We're very supportive of TTB being the sole regulator of the wine industry because of the institutional knowledge that they have and the fact that it's already set up from labeling to lab analysis to taxes." The new rules require all domestic and foreign facilities that make, process, pack or store food, beverages, food ingredients, pet foods or dietary supplements to register with the FDA, updating the registration requirements established in the Bioterrorism Act of 2002. After that, renewals must be made in the last three months of the year in evennumbered years. Registration can be done online at the FDA website, www.fda.gov. Wineries could still be subject to inspections, but they avoid other things levied under the bill, such as having to pay a $500 to $1,000 fee for inspections. M a y - J u n e 2 0 13 | V I N E YA R D & W I N E RY M A N A G E M E N T 15