Thursday, June 23, 2016

The Battle for Water in Paso Robles


Wine-Searcher.com has a great article on a battle that's happening in the not-so-sleepy-now-wine-town of Paso Robles. 

As reported by Wine-Search this week San Luis Obispo County officials issued Justin Vineyards, a stop-work-order for missing trees on their property due to grading violations.   This cease and desist is primarily due to water issues in Paso.

The winery filed plans with the county to build a 6.5 million gallon irrigation pond that would draw from the groundwater from neighboring properties.   The article quotes neighboring Paso winemaker Justin Smith of Saxum, "when you build a reservoir you're stockpiling it.  Half it's going to evaporate.  So you've got to pull out twice as much as you need for your vineyard.  It's something nobody does around here."

Justin Vineyards is owned by Stewart and Lynda Resnick, who's net worth was estimated by Forbes last year at $4.3 billion.  Along with Justin Vineyards the Resnicks as the owners of Pom Wonderful and are the largest growers of almonds, pistachios, and pomegranates in the US.  The Resnicks are also owners of Fiji Water. 

To learn more about this Paso water battle check out the full article at:
http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2016/06/paso-robles-winemakers-divided-over-water





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