Q&A: How One Hope Winery Traded Leach Fields for an Acre of New Vines

When Frank Kloberdanz's family took over a 10-acre property in Napa Valley that would become One Hope Winery, the land came with three separate leach fields eating up space that could otherwise go toward vines, guest facilities, or hospitality. Kloberdanz spent 26 years in Stanford's construction management department, so underground systems weren't new to him. Still, he was looking for a way out from under all that leach field acreage.

The answer came through a chance introduction to Chris Ott at Hydros Agritech, who walked him through Hydros Agritech's compact wastewater treatment system. With the Hydros Kaimana system, Kloberdanz found a system that handles the final treatment stage for the property's own wastewater, thus eliminating the leach fields and enabling Frank to reclaim 1.2 acres of the property.

Kloberdanz talked through how the system works, what it takes to maintain, and what he'd tell other Napa Valley wineries facing the same squeeze on space. His answers below are lightly edited for length and clarity.

Q: What was the original problem you were trying to solve?

A: "Our whole property seemed to be covered with leach fields. When my son bought the property, it had three separate leach fields for our needs. We had to build a new septic system for the winery's process waste on top of the existing systems, so now we had three septic systems that were all going to need their own leach fields. We said, that's too much. We're running out of space here."

Q: How did you end up connecting with Hydros Agritech?

A: "We were introduced to Chris at a fundraiser held at our property. He'd been talking with my daughter-in-law about their system, and we'd already been trying to figure out how to make more room, either for planting or for a guest house we wanted further back in the vines. We didn't meet at a bar drinking beers. We met over the problem."

Q: What made you confident this kind of system would actually work for a winery?

A: "My career was 26 years at Stanford in construction management, so I'd seen a lot of underground systems in buildings. But this is a different world. There's no slope in this part of the valley to run a sewer system, so everybody's on septic. The state's been leaning harder and harder on wineries to get rid of septic systems that are leaching into the water table, so we knew change was coming either way."

Q: How does the system actually work, day to day?

A: "All of our waste streams, sanitary sewage and winery process waste, get aggregated into one waste tank. From there it runs through an engineered piping system with a bacteria colony living inside it. Each module processes about 320 gallons at a time, and two modules run in sequence, so it's about 640 gallons every two-hour cycle. After that it goes through mechanical filtration, then a disc filter, basket filters, ultraviolet light, and a small amount of chlorine just to keep the tank clean. What comes out is completely clear and odorless. You could hold up a glass and it looks like regular water."

Q: Do you use the treated water on the vines?

A: "We use all of the recycled water for landscape irrigation, around the residence, the winery, the cottage. But not on the vines. We run straight well water there, because it's a known quantity that never changes. The recycled water is clean, but its content can shift slightly over time, and our winemaker would rather not introduce that variable. Since well water is essentially free for us right now, it's an easy call."

Q: How much upkeep does the system need?

A: "It bears watching. You can't walk away and expect it to run for years completely untouched. It pays to have people on staff who actually understand mechanical processes. We've got three guys now who know the ins and outs of the system, and when something's off, we can always call Chris. He can pull up the system remotely from his computer and walk us through it."

Q: What about the bacteria itself? Does it need to be replenished?

A: "Once a year, we recharge it. We don't clean anything out. We just dump a cup of fresh bacteria into the tank, and it works its way into the system and rebuilds itself onto the existing colony. It looks like fine, lightweight sawdust. We order it through Chris."

Q: Has the county been receptive to a system like this?

A: "They love it. The state water board loves it, and the county environmental department no longer inspects our septic systems at all. That oversight has effectively been replaced by our state water board permit for the recycled water system. We also brought on Heritage Water Systems as our official recycled-water operator. They sample monthly and file a quarterly report confirming we're meeting all state standards."

Q: What's the tangible payoff been?

A: "We figure we reclaimed about 1.2 acres on a 10-acre site, which is a significant percentage of the property. We didn't necessarily replant that land in vines; a lot of it went toward leaning into the hospitality side of the business instead, since we can buy fruit from anywhere in the valley. The system also lets us aggregate every waste stream on the property instead of managing three separate leach fields, and it's compact enough to fit in a single shed."

Q: Do other winery owners in the valley ask you about it?

A: "Some do, mostly smaller operations, or newer businesses like a hotel project I know of near Sonoma that couldn't fit a leach field for 22 units. The older, grandfathered wineries mostly don't ask, because they don't want to hear the answer. But it's only a matter of time before more of them have to replace an aging leach field and the county tells them a wastewater treatment system is the only path forward. When that happens, I think they'll be glad to reclaim the space."

Kloberdanz's timeline tracks with what's already on the books: Napa County wineries operating under a local extension to the state's Winery Order (WQ 2021-0002-DWQ) have until January 2027 before falling under direct state enforcement.