State Sues Gallo Over Hazardous Dust Used To Make Wine Bottles
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control has sued Ernest and Julio Gallo's glass production plant in Modesto.
Keith Kihara with the state says the company improperly stored, then improperly recycled oil and hazardous dust -containing lead, arsenic, cadmium and selenium from 2009 -to- last year.
"What Gallo was doing was getting this dust that was collected by the air pollution control device and re-introducing it as an ingredient in the glass-making process."
The suit alleges Gallo broke the law by recycling the dust.
"They should have been managing it properly by either sending it to a treatment or a disposal facility," says Kihara.
Chris Savage with Gallo says the company used the waste in place of salt cake- a key ingredient needed to make glass.
He says the process is used industry-wide and worldwide and follows state and federal law. But, for now, Gallo is trucking its hazardous dust -estimated at thousands of tons per year- to a landfill.
