Process Water Treatment and Disposal System for Dierberg Starlane Winery , Santa Barbara County, CA: 2005-The Dierberg Starlane Winery is a 100,000 case per year winery facility in Los Olivos, California producing Dierberg Pinot Noir and Star Lane Cabernet.

The project included a 23,000 SF multi story winery building for barrel storage, fermentation, press room, bottling, casegoods storage and administration and a 26,000 SF man-made wine storage cave. Wayne Haefele & Associates was part of a multi disciplined design team headed by Steve Martin & Associates of Sebastopol, CA and featuring project architects Berkus Design/B3 Architects of Santa Barbara, CA, electrical design provided by Thoma Electric of San Luis Obispo, CA and civil site engineering by MNS Engineers of Santa Barbara, CA.

The project also included a two stage aerated pond system for treatment and disposal of process wastewater generated from winery operations. The system is permitted through addition to the state's Winery General Waste Discharge Permit administered through the Central Coast Water Quality Control Board in San Luis Obispo. Process waste water is kept separate from domestic waste water at the winery and is transported via gravity sewers from the winery building to a process water pump station. The pump system conveys the water to the pond site where it is screened to remove the pomace (residual grape solids) using a motorized rotary drum screen. The screened water then transits the primary and secondary ponds, where the treated water is withdrawn at an effluent pump station and used for irrigation. The detention times and aeration capacities exceed those usually seen for domestic wastewater systems due to the comparatively high BOD5 and TDS levels inherent to winery waste. Provisions were made for future pH adjustment which will be installed if operations should indicate that it is needed.

Wayne Haefele & Associates, Inc provided design, permitting and construction documentation of the process waste treatment and disposal system.