#Illahe Vineyards

[luxebeat]

Oregon's Allison Inn & Spa hosts wine auction

Oregon’s Allison Inn & Spa hosts wine auction

Allison Inn & Spa is hosting The Willamette Valley Wineries Association (WVWA) Willamette: The Pinot Noir Auction event on April 3 and April 4, 2020. This non-profit organization is dedicated to achieving recognition for Oregon’s acclaimed Willamette Valley as a premier Pinot noir–producing region.

Located in the heart of Oregon Wine Country, Allison Inn & Spa is nestled amidst the verdant…

[oinoslogo]

Orlando residents and visitors: If you haven’t tried Illahe Vineyards Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon, you’re in for a treat. This delicious, handcrafted, and sustainable Illahe Vineyards 2019 Pinot Noir is now available in Orlando, Florida at Paddlefish in Disney Springs and at Swirlery in the SODO District. The epicurean experience of enjoying a 2019 Illahe Vineyards Willamette Valley Pinot Noir begins with delightful aromas of strawberry, tamarind, and blackberry, which then expand to the palate with additional gentle touches of mineral sensations, tobacco leaf and cocoa. A sharp brightness is balanced with gentle tannins from grape skins and oak, providing an elegant and generous mouthfeel. The flavors continue to the enjoyable finish asking for another sip. Yes! It’s delicious! You’re welcome! #illahe #illahevineyards #pinotnoir #oregonpinotnoir #pairswithseafood #familyownedandoperated #sustainablewine #handcafted #chinook #swirlerywinebar #paddlefish #paddlefishorlando #winesfromusa #oregonwine #oinoslogo #willamettevalley #oregon #epicureanexperience #orlandowinescene #disneysprings #redwinewithfish #sommlife (at Paddlefish) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMr8gwLrXnL/?igshid=amk9iccvs1wi

[davidrussellschilling]

Willamette Valley Oregon

C O N T E N T S:

KEY TOPICS

Oregon has long produced and attracted dreamers and drifters, misfits and mysteries, so it?s no wonder that the Willamette Valley claims more than its fair share of the freaky and the far out.(More…)

The Valley is also home to hiking trails, bike paths, farmers markets and covered bridges, making Oregon wine country a perfect destination for an at-once energizing and…

[thewinersclub]

Top story: Tasting the Oregon Wine Trail Part 2: Illahe Vineyards – The Swirling Dervish https://t.co/Xz31dWTZkM, see more https://t.co/SL5apbDSMp

[myvinespot]

New on myvinespot.com … Wine with a View: Pours from Markus Wine Co., Stinson Vineyards, and Illahe Vineyards. Please see link in bio (Thanks!) #wine #winelover #winewriter #wineblogger #beachlife #lifesabeach #LodiWine #Lodi #vawine #WillametteValley #orwine #linkinbio https://www.instagram.com/p/Bsrg2uWH4t0/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=uz4h25vv8twg

[waywardwine]

Illahe Vineyards’ “1899” Pinot Noir: Making And Moving Wine Without Modernity

Illahe Vineyards’ “1899” Pinot Noir: Making And Moving Wine Without Modernity

JancisRobinson.com recently finished their summer 2020 Wine Writing Competition (WWC20) and published 75 entries on Sustainability Heroes in the wine industry. I was honored to have all three of my submissions published. Although, I did not win the final, the below article on Illahe made it onto the shortlist of 18. For your re-reading pleasure, I will re-publish each over the following days.

Mak…

[delfinamaggiousa]

No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques

Brad Ford, the winemaker at Oregon’s Illahe Vineyards, is always tinkering with something interesting — a wine press rescued from a junkyard, a horse-drawn mower he engineered himself, amphorae he created from scratch. The need to make or restore his own tools has been driven out of financial necessity at times, as is the case for many small wineries. But it also fulfills his desire to explore every aspect of the art, science, and mystery of his profession.

In the lull provided by the Covid-19 outbreak, Ford has embarked on his biggest project yet: building a beam-style wine press similar to the one the Roman scholar Cato wrote about in “De Agri Cultura.” When finished, he expects the 1-ton, 60-foot press will be the longest in the United States.

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

The 19th Century Reimagined

Ford’s father was a hobby grape grower who began operating a vineyard professionally in 2000. Ford became the winemaker at his dad’s company about six years into the new venture and now runs all the day-to-day operations. Although he attended the wine studies program at nearby Chemeketa Community College to learn the most modern information about winemaking, he felt himself drawn to the history of farming and enology. Early on, he began to experiment with more traditional approaches to creating wine.

To begin with, he bought two draft horses, Doc and Bea, to work on the property. The team cuts the vineyard’s cover crop and transports some of the fruit during harvest. Their role is limited by the fact that teamsters are in short supply today, so Ford is the only one who knows how to drive them. Even if horses aren’t the most efficient way to farm, Ford is committed to the method. “It is really enjoyable to be around horses,” he says. “It’s way more enjoyable to be working with animals than with tractors. You get a huge human benefit out of a lifestyle that’s more ancient and natural.”

Doc and Bea also play a crucial role in one of Ford’s signature wines, the 1899 Pinot Noir. Most years he makes eight to 12 barrels of wine without the aid of electricity, stainless steel, or other conveniences invented after 1900. The grapes for the wine come from a 1-acre block that is harvested exclusively with the horses. The fruit is de-stemmed with a bicycle-powered machine, pressed in a wooden basket press, fermented with natural yeast in a wooden vat, and pumped into barrels with a bicycle-powered pump.

Even transporting the wine to Illahe’s Portland-based distributor is typically done without the aid of electricity. The boxes are moved off the property by horse and loaded into a stagecoach that delivers the wine to the nearby Willamette River. There, it’s placed in a canoe. Ford and two others spend three days paddling to Oregon City, where the boxes are transferred to a bicycle for the final leg of their journey.

While that final piece has more to do with Ford’s desire to be true to his experiment, he says he’s learned a tremendous amount about winemaking through the 1899 project, including how to work with the native yeast that he now uses exclusively in all of his reds.

“Science is one way to go about things and I love science,” Ford says. And he has no objection to using modern knowledge to help the vineyards stay healthy or remove flaws from wine. But the best foods aren’t the ones that are highly processed or made in a lab, and he believes the same is true for wine.

“Every experiment we’re doing is moving us forward to more historical winemaking than modern, scientific winemaking, and more natural winemaking,” he says. “It just produces the best wines.”

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

Remaking Cato’s Wine Press

The extreme end of Ford’s desire to return to old-school winemaking is his latest project: a beam-style wine press that will be 60 feet long when it is finished. Millennia before today’s electric presses were invented, Cato and other winemakers juiced their grapes by lowering a heavy object such as a beam onto a wooden basket full of grapes. The next innovation was a screw press, which allowed people to twist one or more handles to apply force to the basket.

Ford had seen a hand-carved wooden screw press at Château du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy. “It’s one of the things I really remember from that visit,” he said. “The wine is something I remember quite a bit, too, but coming to a place and seeing that press was an important experience for me. So if we can recreate a little bit of that experience, I’d like it.”

Despite his fascination with the Burgundian screw press, Ford decided that Cato’s beam press would be easier to build. He also knew it would be more authentic than what he was currently doing with the 1899: moving the pistons on a modern-day basket press with hydraulic auto jacks that two people had to pump by hand. (“They’re filled with hydraulic oil. Did the Romans have that? No. But are they electrical? No.”)

Ford’s closest friend is Erik Jensen, a physics instructor at Chemeketa Community College. Ford asked him how big a beam he would need to operate a basket press that could handle his current grape production. “He did his math and said it needed to be 60 feet long. He’s since retracted it but it’s too late because now I’m building the thing.”

To begin the press, he cut down a dying 130-foot Douglas fir tree on his property. He called a local lumber mill to see if they could transform it into the beam. The answer was a resounding no. Log trucks can only move trees up to 50 feet, and most mills can’t handle one longer than 24 feet. “I said, ‘What would you do if you were trying to build a big beam that’s 60 feet long?’ and they said, ‘I’d use a chainsaw,’” Ford said. His next stop was the local logging store.

It took a 7-ton excavator to stand the tree up on two smaller logs so he could cut it to size. Ford built a carriage for the chainsaw that runs along a 2-foot-by-8-foot length of timber attached to the top, and is using a string line to trim off the curved sides of the log. When finished, the beam will be 14 inches wide at the narrowest end and 2 feet on the opposite side. (The cut-offs from the log will likely go to the tasting room, where they’ll be finished and turned into tables.)

At some point, Ford will also build a wheel that can be connected to the beam with a rope, then cranked to lower or raise the beam manually. It will operate a press about 6 feet wide, which will give Ford about four times more pressing capacity than he has now. It will also work faster; given the beam’s incredible weight, the press cycle should only take about an hour.

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak has given Ford extra time to work on projects around the winery. He hopes to have the beam cut and moved to the exterior alcove where the presses are located later this year. It will take years to fully finish it. “If we really like it, we’ll build it a little house,” Ford says fondly, looking at the log. “It will be so fun for people to go outside and have a glass of wine and see the press.”

He acknowledged that building this modern wonder makes no economic sense. “You can easily buy something so much faster that already works and that’s controlled by a computer and that does a great job of pressing the wine,” he says. “But it’s so much less fun to just buy a brand new press.”

It also wouldn’t teach him anything about winemaking. As he stands in the clearing where the log is undergoing its transformation, Ford talks about the Japanese craftsmen who adopt an art form at a young age and spend the rest of their lives refining their skills and understanding their art. “They make their own tools,” he points out. “You make your own knife, you make your own saw, you make your own pots or whatever you’re going to use for your craft. You have your tools and you know those tools are always sharp and those tools are the ones you need for the job.”

A beam may be slightly bigger than a carving knife, but Ford believes it will help him further shape and hone the medium he’s dedicated his life to.

The article No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/oregon-grower-ancient-roman-winemaking/

source https://vinology1.wordpress.com/2020/07/19/no-electricity-no-problem-this-oregon-grower-is-resurrecting-ancient-roman-winemaking-techniques/

[wineanddinosaur]

No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques

Brad Ford, the winemaker at Oregon’s Illahe Vineyards, is always tinkering with something interesting — a wine press rescued from a junkyard, a horse-drawn mower he engineered himself, amphorae he created from scratch. The need to make or restore his own tools has been driven out of financial necessity at times, as is the case for many small wineries. But it also fulfills his desire to explore every aspect of the art, science, and mystery of his profession.

In the lull provided by the Covid-19 outbreak, Ford has embarked on his biggest project yet: building a beam-style wine press similar to the one the Roman scholar Cato wrote about in “De Agri Cultura.” When finished, he expects the 1-ton, 60-foot press will be the longest in the United States.

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

The 19th Century Reimagined

Ford’s father was a hobby grape grower who began operating a vineyard professionally in 2000. Ford became the winemaker at his dad’s company about six years into the new venture and now runs all the day-to-day operations. Although he attended the wine studies program at nearby Chemeketa Community College to learn the most modern information about winemaking, he felt himself drawn to the history of farming and enology. Early on, he began to experiment with more traditional approaches to creating wine.

To begin with, he bought two draft horses, Doc and Bea, to work on the property. The team cuts the vineyard’s cover crop and transports some of the fruit during harvest. Their role is limited by the fact that teamsters are in short supply today, so Ford is the only one who knows how to drive them. Even if horses aren’t the most efficient way to farm, Ford is committed to the method. “It is really enjoyable to be around horses,” he says. “It’s way more enjoyable to be working with animals than with tractors. You get a huge human benefit out of a lifestyle that’s more ancient and natural.”

Doc and Bea also play a crucial role in one of Ford’s signature wines, the 1899 Pinot Noir. Most years he makes eight to 12 barrels of wine without the aid of electricity, stainless steel, or other conveniences invented after 1900. The grapes for the wine come from a 1-acre block that is harvested exclusively with the horses. The fruit is de-stemmed with a bicycle-powered machine, pressed in a wooden basket press, fermented with natural yeast in a wooden vat, and pumped into barrels with a bicycle-powered pump.

Even transporting the wine to Illahe’s Portland-based distributor is typically done without the aid of electricity. The boxes are moved off the property by horse and loaded into a stagecoach that delivers the wine to the nearby Willamette River. There, it’s placed in a canoe. Ford and two others spend three days paddling to Oregon City, where the boxes are transferred to a bicycle for the final leg of their journey.

While that final piece has more to do with Ford’s desire to be true to his experiment, he says he’s learned a tremendous amount about winemaking through the 1899 project, including how to work with the native yeast that he now uses exclusively in all of his reds.

“Science is one way to go about things and I love science,” Ford says. And he has no objection to using modern knowledge to help the vineyards stay healthy or remove flaws from wine. But the best foods aren’t the ones that are highly processed or made in a lab, and he believes the same is true for wine.

“Every experiment we’re doing is moving us forward to more historical winemaking than modern, scientific winemaking, and more natural winemaking,” he says. “It just produces the best wines.”

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

Remaking Cato’s Wine Press

The extreme end of Ford’s desire to return to old-school winemaking is his latest project: a beam-style wine press that will be 60 feet long when it is finished. Millennia before today’s electric presses were invented, Cato and other winemakers juiced their grapes by lowering a heavy object such as a beam onto a wooden basket full of grapes. The next innovation was a screw press, which allowed people to twist one or more handles to apply force to the basket.

Ford had seen a hand-carved wooden screw press at Château du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy. “It’s one of the things I really remember from that visit,” he said. “The wine is something I remember quite a bit, too, but coming to a place and seeing that press was an important experience for me. So if we can recreate a little bit of that experience, I’d like it.”

Despite his fascination with the Burgundian screw press, Ford decided that Cato’s beam press would be easier to build. He also knew it would be more authentic than what he was currently doing with the 1899: moving the pistons on a modern-day basket press with hydraulic auto jacks that two people had to pump by hand. (“They’re filled with hydraulic oil. Did the Romans have that? No. But are they electrical? No.”)

Ford’s closest friend is Erik Jensen, a physics instructor at Chemeketa Community College. Ford asked him how big a beam he would need to operate a basket press that could handle his current grape production. “He did his math and said it needed to be 60 feet long. He’s since retracted it but it’s too late because now I’m building the thing.”

To begin the press, he cut down a dying 130-foot Douglas fir tree on his property. He called a local lumber mill to see if they could transform it into the beam. The answer was a resounding no. Log trucks can only move trees up to 50 feet, and most mills can’t handle one longer than 24 feet. “I said, ‘What would you do if you were trying to build a big beam that’s 60 feet long?’ and they said, ‘I’d use a chainsaw,’” Ford said. His next stop was the local logging store.

It took a 7-ton excavator to stand the tree up on two smaller logs so he could cut it to size. Ford built a carriage for the chainsaw that runs along a 2-foot-by-8-foot length of timber attached to the top, and is using a string line to trim off the curved sides of the log. When finished, the beam will be 14 inches wide at the narrowest end and 2 feet on the opposite side. (The cut-offs from the log will likely go to the tasting room, where they’ll be finished and turned into tables.)

At some point, Ford will also build a wheel that can be connected to the beam with a rope, then cranked to lower or raise the beam manually. It will operate a press about 6 feet wide, which will give Ford about four times more pressing capacity than he has now. It will also work faster; given the beam’s incredible weight, the press cycle should only take about an hour.

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak has given Ford extra time to work on projects around the winery. He hopes to have the beam cut and moved to the exterior alcove where the presses are located later this year. It will take years to fully finish it. “If we really like it, we’ll build it a little house,” Ford says fondly, looking at the log. “It will be so fun for people to go outside and have a glass of wine and see the press.”

He acknowledged that building this modern wonder makes no economic sense. “You can easily buy something so much faster that already works and that’s controlled by a computer and that does a great job of pressing the wine,” he says. “But it’s so much less fun to just buy a brand new press.”

It also wouldn’t teach him anything about winemaking. As he stands in the clearing where the log is undergoing its transformation, Ford talks about the Japanese craftsmen who adopt an art form at a young age and spend the rest of their lives refining their skills and understanding their art. “They make their own tools,” he points out. “You make your own knife, you make your own saw, you make your own pots or whatever you’re going to use for your craft. You have your tools and you know those tools are always sharp and those tools are the ones you need for the job.”

A beam may be slightly bigger than a carving knife, but Ford believes it will help him further shape and hone the medium he’s dedicated his life to.

The article No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/oregon-grower-ancient-roman-winemaking/

[isaiahrippinus]

No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques

Brad Ford, the winemaker at Oregon’s Illahe Vineyards, is always tinkering with something interesting — a wine press rescued from a junkyard, a horse-drawn mower he engineered himself, amphorae he created from scratch. The need to make or restore his own tools has been driven out of financial necessity at times, as is the case for many small wineries. But it also fulfills his desire to explore every aspect of the art, science, and mystery of his profession.

In the lull provided by the Covid-19 outbreak, Ford has embarked on his biggest project yet: building a beam-style wine press similar to the one the Roman scholar Cato wrote about in “De Agri Cultura.” When finished, he expects the 1-ton, 60-foot press will be the longest in the United States.

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

The 19th Century Reimagined

Ford’s father was a hobby grape grower who began operating a vineyard professionally in 2000. Ford became the winemaker at his dad’s company about six years into the new venture and now runs all the day-to-day operations. Although he attended the wine studies program at nearby Chemeketa Community College to learn the most modern information about winemaking, he felt himself drawn to the history of farming and enology. Early on, he began to experiment with more traditional approaches to creating wine.

To begin with, he bought two draft horses, Doc and Bea, to work on the property. The team cuts the vineyard’s cover crop and transports some of the fruit during harvest. Their role is limited by the fact that teamsters are in short supply today, so Ford is the only one who knows how to drive them. Even if horses aren’t the most efficient way to farm, Ford is committed to the method. “It is really enjoyable to be around horses,” he says. “It’s way more enjoyable to be working with animals than with tractors. You get a huge human benefit out of a lifestyle that’s more ancient and natural.”

Doc and Bea also play a crucial role in one of Ford’s signature wines, the 1899 Pinot Noir. Most years he makes eight to 12 barrels of wine without the aid of electricity, stainless steel, or other conveniences invented after 1900. The grapes for the wine come from a 1-acre block that is harvested exclusively with the horses. The fruit is de-stemmed with a bicycle-powered machine, pressed in a wooden basket press, fermented with natural yeast in a wooden vat, and pumped into barrels with a bicycle-powered pump.

Even transporting the wine to Illahe’s Portland-based distributor is typically done without the aid of electricity. The boxes are moved off the property by horse and loaded into a stagecoach that delivers the wine to the nearby Willamette River. There, it’s placed in a canoe. Ford and two others spend three days paddling to Oregon City, where the boxes are transferred to a bicycle for the final leg of their journey.

While that final piece has more to do with Ford’s desire to be true to his experiment, he says he’s learned a tremendous amount about winemaking through the 1899 project, including how to work with the native yeast that he now uses exclusively in all of his reds.

“Science is one way to go about things and I love science,” Ford says. And he has no objection to using modern knowledge to help the vineyards stay healthy or remove flaws from wine. But the best foods aren’t the ones that are highly processed or made in a lab, and he believes the same is true for wine.

“Every experiment we’re doing is moving us forward to more historical winemaking than modern, scientific winemaking, and more natural winemaking,” he says. “It just produces the best wines.”

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

Remaking Cato’s Wine Press

The extreme end of Ford’s desire to return to old-school winemaking is his latest project: a beam-style wine press that will be 60 feet long when it is finished. Millennia before today’s electric presses were invented, Cato and other winemakers juiced their grapes by lowering a heavy object such as a beam onto a wooden basket full of grapes. The next innovation was a screw press, which allowed people to twist one or more handles to apply force to the basket.

Ford had seen a hand-carved wooden screw press at Château du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy. “It’s one of the things I really remember from that visit,” he said. “The wine is something I remember quite a bit, too, but coming to a place and seeing that press was an important experience for me. So if we can recreate a little bit of that experience, I’d like it.”

Despite his fascination with the Burgundian screw press, Ford decided that Cato’s beam press would be easier to build. He also knew it would be more authentic than what he was currently doing with the 1899: moving the pistons on a modern-day basket press with hydraulic auto jacks that two people had to pump by hand. (“They’re filled with hydraulic oil. Did the Romans have that? No. But are they electrical? No.”)

Ford’s closest friend is Erik Jensen, a physics instructor at Chemeketa Community College. Ford asked him how big a beam he would need to operate a basket press that could handle his current grape production. “He did his math and said it needed to be 60 feet long. He’s since retracted it but it’s too late because now I’m building the thing.”

To begin the press, he cut down a dying 130-foot Douglas fir tree on his property. He called a local lumber mill to see if they could transform it into the beam. The answer was a resounding no. Log trucks can only move trees up to 50 feet, and most mills can’t handle one longer than 24 feet. “I said, ‘What would you do if you were trying to build a big beam that’s 60 feet long?’ and they said, ‘I’d use a chainsaw,’” Ford said. His next stop was the local logging store.

It took a 7-ton excavator to stand the tree up on two smaller logs so he could cut it to size. Ford built a carriage for the chainsaw that runs along a 2-foot-by-8-foot length of timber attached to the top, and is using a string line to trim off the curved sides of the log. When finished, the beam will be 14 inches wide at the narrowest end and 2 feet on the opposite side. (The cut-offs from the log will likely go to the tasting room, where they’ll be finished and turned into tables.)

At some point, Ford will also build a wheel that can be connected to the beam with a rope, then cranked to lower or raise the beam manually. It will operate a press about 6 feet wide, which will give Ford about four times more pressing capacity than he has now. It will also work faster; given the beam’s incredible weight, the press cycle should only take about an hour.

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak has given Ford extra time to work on projects around the winery. He hopes to have the beam cut and moved to the exterior alcove where the presses are located later this year. It will take years to fully finish it. “If we really like it, we’ll build it a little house,” Ford says fondly, looking at the log. “It will be so fun for people to go outside and have a glass of wine and see the press.”

He acknowledged that building this modern wonder makes no economic sense. “You can easily buy something so much faster that already works and that’s controlled by a computer and that does a great job of pressing the wine,” he says. “But it’s so much less fun to just buy a brand new press.”

It also wouldn’t teach him anything about winemaking. As he stands in the clearing where the log is undergoing its transformation, Ford talks about the Japanese craftsmen who adopt an art form at a young age and spend the rest of their lives refining their skills and understanding their art. “They make their own tools,” he points out. “You make your own knife, you make your own saw, you make your own pots or whatever you’re going to use for your craft. You have your tools and you know those tools are always sharp and those tools are the ones you need for the job.”

A beam may be slightly bigger than a carving knife, but Ford believes it will help him further shape and hone the medium he’s dedicated his life to.

The article No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/oregon-grower-ancient-roman-winemaking/ source https://vinology1.tumblr.com/post/624084776416100352

[johnboothus]

No Electricity No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques

Brad Ford, the winemaker at Oregon’s Illahe Vineyards, is always tinkering with something interesting — a wine press rescued from a junkyard, a horse-drawn mower he engineered himself, amphorae he created from scratch. The need to make or restore his own tools has been driven out of financial necessity at times, as is the case for many small wineries. But it also fulfills his desire to explore every aspect of the art, science, and mystery of his profession.

In the lull provided by the Covid-19 outbreak, Ford has embarked on his biggest project yet: building a beam-style wine press similar to the one the Roman scholar Cato wrote about in “De Agri Cultura.” When finished, he expects the 1-ton, 60-foot press will be the longest in the United States.

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

The 19th Century Reimagined

Ford’s father was a hobby grape grower who began operating a vineyard professionally in 2000. Ford became the winemaker at his dad’s company about six years into the new venture and now runs all the day-to-day operations. Although he attended the wine studies program at nearby Chemeketa Community College to learn the most modern information about winemaking, he felt himself drawn to the history of farming and enology. Early on, he began to experiment with more traditional approaches to creating wine.

To begin with, he bought two draft horses, Doc and Bea, to work on the property. The team cuts the vineyard’s cover crop and transports some of the fruit during harvest. Their role is limited by the fact that teamsters are in short supply today, so Ford is the only one who knows how to drive them. Even if horses aren’t the most efficient way to farm, Ford is committed to the method. “It is really enjoyable to be around horses,” he says. “It’s way more enjoyable to be working with animals than with tractors. You get a huge human benefit out of a lifestyle that’s more ancient and natural.”

Doc and Bea also play a crucial role in one of Ford’s signature wines, the 1899 Pinot Noir. Most years he makes eight to 12 barrels of wine without the aid of electricity, stainless steel, or other conveniences invented after 1900. The grapes for the wine come from a 1-acre block that is harvested exclusively with the horses. The fruit is de-stemmed with a bicycle-powered machine, pressed in a wooden basket press, fermented with natural yeast in a wooden vat, and pumped into barrels with a bicycle-powered pump.

Even transporting the wine to Illahe’s Portland-based distributor is typically done without the aid of electricity. The boxes are moved off the property by horse and loaded into a stagecoach that delivers the wine to the nearby Willamette River. There, it’s placed in a canoe. Ford and two others spend three days paddling to Oregon City, where the boxes are transferred to a bicycle for the final leg of their journey.

While that final piece has more to do with Ford’s desire to be true to his experiment, he says he’s learned a tremendous amount about winemaking through the 1899 project, including how to work with the native yeast that he now uses exclusively in all of his reds.

“Science is one way to go about things and I love science,” Ford says. And he has no objection to using modern knowledge to help the vineyards stay healthy or remove flaws from wine. But the best foods aren’t the ones that are highly processed or made in a lab, and he believes the same is true for wine.

“Every experiment we’re doing is moving us forward to more historical winemaking than modern, scientific winemaking, and more natural winemaking,” he says. “It just produces the best wines.”

Credit: Sophia McDonald Bennett

Remaking Cato’s Wine Press

The extreme end of Ford’s desire to return to old-school winemaking is his latest project: a beam-style wine press that will be 60 feet long when it is finished. Millennia before today’s electric presses were invented, Cato and other winemakers juiced their grapes by lowering a heavy object such as a beam onto a wooden basket full of grapes. The next innovation was a screw press, which allowed people to twist one or more handles to apply force to the basket.

Ford had seen a hand-carved wooden screw press at Château du Clos de Vougeot in Burgundy. “It’s one of the things I really remember from that visit,” he said. “The wine is something I remember quite a bit, too, but coming to a place and seeing that press was an important experience for me. So if we can recreate a little bit of that experience, I’d like it.”

Despite his fascination with the Burgundian screw press, Ford decided that Cato’s beam press would be easier to build. He also knew it would be more authentic than what he was currently doing with the 1899: moving the pistons on a modern-day basket press with hydraulic auto jacks that two people had to pump by hand. (“They’re filled with hydraulic oil. Did the Romans have that? No. But are they electrical? No.”)

Ford’s closest friend is Erik Jensen, a physics instructor at Chemeketa Community College. Ford asked him how big a beam he would need to operate a basket press that could handle his current grape production. “He did his math and said it needed to be 60 feet long. He’s since retracted it but it’s too late because now I’m building the thing.”

To begin the press, he cut down a dying 130-foot Douglas fir tree on his property. He called a local lumber mill to see if they could transform it into the beam. The answer was a resounding no. Log trucks can only move trees up to 50 feet, and most mills can’t handle one longer than 24 feet. “I said, ‘What would you do if you were trying to build a big beam that’s 60 feet long?’ and they said, ‘I’d use a chainsaw,’” Ford said. His next stop was the local logging store.

It took a 7-ton excavator to stand the tree up on two smaller logs so he could cut it to size. Ford built a carriage for the chainsaw that runs along a 2-foot-by-8-foot length of timber attached to the top, and is using a string line to trim off the curved sides of the log. When finished, the beam will be 14 inches wide at the narrowest end and 2 feet on the opposite side. (The cut-offs from the log will likely go to the tasting room, where they’ll be finished and turned into tables.)

At some point, Ford will also build a wheel that can be connected to the beam with a rope, then cranked to lower or raise the beam manually. It will operate a press about 6 feet wide, which will give Ford about four times more pressing capacity than he has now. It will also work faster; given the beam’s incredible weight, the press cycle should only take about an hour.

The disruption caused by the Covid-19 outbreak has given Ford extra time to work on projects around the winery. He hopes to have the beam cut and moved to the exterior alcove where the presses are located later this year. It will take years to fully finish it. “If we really like it, we’ll build it a little house,” Ford says fondly, looking at the log. “It will be so fun for people to go outside and have a glass of wine and see the press.”

He acknowledged that building this modern wonder makes no economic sense. “You can easily buy something so much faster that already works and that’s controlled by a computer and that does a great job of pressing the wine,” he says. “But it’s so much less fun to just buy a brand new press.”

It also wouldn’t teach him anything about winemaking. As he stands in the clearing where the log is undergoing its transformation, Ford talks about the Japanese craftsmen who adopt an art form at a young age and spend the rest of their lives refining their skills and understanding their art. “They make their own tools,” he points out. “You make your own knife, you make your own saw, you make your own pots or whatever you’re going to use for your craft. You have your tools and you know those tools are always sharp and those tools are the ones you need for the job.”

A beam may be slightly bigger than a carving knife, but Ford believes it will help him further shape and hone the medium he’s dedicated his life to.

The article No Electricity, No Problem: This Oregon Grower Is Resurrecting Ancient Roman Winemaking Techniques appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/oregon-grower-ancient-roman-winemaking/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/no-electricity-no-problem-this-oregon-grower-is-resurrecting-ancient-roman-winemaking-techniques

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First course: Seared American red snapper courtesy of @southharringtonseafood topped with a cucumber fennel salad and Georgia olive oil paired with Gruner Veltliner, Illahe Vineyards 'Estate', Willamette Valley, Oregon #georgiaseagrill #instafood #winedinner #firstcourse #americanredsnapper (at Georgia Sea Grill)

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Wine Barrel Composition, No Filter @illahevineyards #illahevineyards #willamettevalley #willamettevalleywine #willamettevalleyvineyards #pinot #pinotnoir #pinotlover #pinotnoirlover #willamettevalleypinotnoir #oregonexplored #nofilterneededforthisbeauty (at Illahe Vineyards)

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Illahe #oregon #wvharvest2017 #vineyard

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We Come Clean About the Least Polluted U.S. Cities (and the Dirtiest)

jmsilva/iStock; Zview/iStock

Life in a big city can often seem downright hazardous to your health. There are overly aggressive drivers, reckless bicyclists, ill-tempered hot dog vendors, and pedestrians more engrossed in their Tinder accounts than the oncoming traffic—and that’s just when you’re trying to cross the street. Try fighting over the only-available taxi, the best bar stools during the NBA finals, or the last pair of Louboutins on sale in your size.

But most perilous of all might just be the environment itself.

That air you’re sucking in? It’s thick with exhaust fumes, secondhand smoke, and whatever’s being cooked up in that sketchy warehouse around the corner. Want to ease your scratchy throat with a cool drink of water from the nearby fountain? Watch out, it might contain lead!

Pollution has long been as integral to American urban life as slow-walking tourists, besuited executives, and trendy restaurants. But here’s the good news: There are metropolitan areas where you can enjoy the benefits of city life and breathe freely (and safely) while you do it.

Our data team crunched some numbers to find just where those urban Edens might be, and then donned biohazard gear to determine their most soiled siblings. A pattern soon emerged: The cleanest cities are typically set amid agricultural communities, with a national forest or natural reserve nearby. Meanwhile, the most polluted cities are former industrial hubs in the Rust Belt and along the Gulf of Mexico.

Overall, though, pollution in the U.S. has declined quite a bit in recent years. The nation’s industrial facilities released 25% less toxic chemicals in 2015 than in 2005, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Give the credit to green chemistry, improved waste management, and fewer industrial facilities, says EPA spokesman Robert Daguillard.

“Air quality has gotten much better because of preventions that were put into place under the 1970 Clean Air Act,” says Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association. The federal law was designed to limit air pollution.

And the impact is being felt. Los Angeles, once the American poster child for smog, still has some of the nation’s worst air quality, but it’s been steadily improving for decades. There were only six clear L.A. days (where air pollution poses little risk) in 1980, according to the EPA. Last year there were 65.

Despite the improvements, about half of Americans still live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, Nolen notes.

Los Angeles in 1956 (left) and 2017

Left: American Stock/Getty Images; right: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

To find the big cities where the air is pristine and the water safe to drink—and the ones where they aren’t—we ranked the 150 largest metros by the following criteria:

Toxic chemicals released from factories*

Greenhouse gas emissions per square mile

Number of Superfund sites per square mile

Air quality, measured by the number of clear days in a year

Water quality, measured by contaminants like lead, copper, arsenic, nitrate, and more

Ready? Take a deep breath: Here’s what we learned about the nation’s least and most polluted cities.

Florida leads the way Vibrant (and clean) community in Naples, FL

Anne Rippy/Getty Images

The Sunshine State might be best known for its oranges, brilliantly clothed retirees, and propensity for swing votes, but it also leads the country in air quality. With sea winds sweeping over the mostly flat terrain from both its east and west coasts, noxious emissions tend to be blown away. And there aren’t that many to start with: Florida has never been a heavy industrial state. The mainstays of the state’s economy—tourism, agriculture, and international trade—are all relatively light in pollution.

The cleanest city in our analysis, Naples, in southwest Florida, is famous as an ecotourism destination. Surrounded by natural reserves like the Everglades, Ten Thousand Islands, and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, it also has one of the few remaining undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America.

“Collier County [which includes Naples] has more acres of protected lands than any other county in Florida,” says Renee Wilson, spokeswoman for Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. “This is mostly due to the wetland characteristic of the Everglades … 110,000 acres of protected sanctuary.”

Tucked in Central Florida’s horse country, Ocala (No. 3) is home to a national forest with the world’s largest sand pine tree habitat—a glorious 673 square miles of vegetation, absorbing carbon dioxide in the air and pumping out fresh oxygen. Not enough for you? Check out the crystal-clear water of Silver Springs, best known for its star turn in the (many) underwater fight scenes of the classic Sean Connery–era James Bond movie “Thunderball.”

Oregon, the green state Solar panel array outside a Willamette Valley winery, near Salem, OR.

George Rose/Getty Images

Just outside Salem in northwest Oregon, Illahe Vineyard is committed to making wine without electricity or fossil fuels. The grapes are hand-picked and hauled to the winery by a team of horses instead of machines. Winemakers then take turns pedaling a bike to pump grapes into wine barrels.

That’s eco-conscious Salem (No. 2) for you—and Oregon as a whole. Last year, the state became the first in the nation to pass a law to phase out coal completely, requiring its largest utilities to supply at least half of their electricity from renewable resources, like wind and solar, by 2040.

Salem residents are crazy about their bikes, pushing the percentage of commuters who bike or walk to work 40% higher than the national average. With fewer cars hitting the roads, Salem didn’t have a single day with bad air last year, according to the EPA’s air quality index.

Oregon is famed for its craft beer, and anyone who enjoys a refreshing pint or three of pale ale should give credit where credit is due: the state’s clean (and tasty) water. Eugene’s (No. 7) water supplies come from the McKenzie River, which originates deep in the Willamette National Forest.

“We here in Eugene are lucky enough that the McKenzie River is pretty much ideal for making beer,” boasts Dan Russo from Oakshire Brewing.

Two Californias: Agricultural vs. industrial The city of Santa Rosa doesn’t produce a ton of toxic chemicals (literally).

George Rose/Getty Images

While Southern California has a lousy rep when it comes to pollution, two agricultural communities in Northern California are exactly the opposite.

Salinas (No. 10), which bills itself as the “Salad Bowl of the World” (you can’t make this up, folks), grows roughly 70% of the nation’s lettuce. Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck grew up here, and wrote lyrically about the region’s golden beauty in his 1952 novel, “East of Eden.”

More than a half-century later, Salinas Valley is still agricultural. Low industrial and traffic emissions, and openness to the sea, keep its air among the cleanest in the nation. It’s one of a handful of cities that have a low concentration of all major categories of harmful air pollutants.

Drive 50 miles north of San Francisco, and you enter a different world: Wine country, redwood forests, farms, and rivers are all part of the landscape of Santa Rosa (No. 5). Pollutants there are virtually nonexistent—the whole metro produced 121.2 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2015. To put it into perspective, the New York metro produced 630,000 times more.

OK, let’s go to the dirty side:

Rust Belt pollution renaissance Scenic Philadelphia, PA

Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

The Rust Belt has retired numerous coal-fired plants and made major efforts to clean up its air in the past three decades, but new environmental challenges have emerged: Pennsylvania has become the new hot spot for natural gas and oil production, along with all the toxic output that comes from it. The worst polluter in the country is Philadelphia, where a whopping 13.4 million pounds of poisonous chemicals were released in 2015 by oil refineries, shipyards, and auto manufacturers, the EPA reported.

The situation is most dire in Southwest Philly, where crude-oil trains chug through like clockwork. They’re sometimes called “bomb trains,” because the oil has an unwelcome tendency to occasionally catch fire and explode. Plumes of white smoke from oil refineries can be seen and sniffed from most residents’ backyards. The smoke isn’t always white, either—it was pink when a boiler exploded at the Veolia steam energy plant last year and black when fire broke out at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery the year before.

Almost half of Philadelphia children living in poverty have asthma, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.

“There are little lungs that are still developing that are taking in lots of toxic air. [They] are particularly susceptible to these pollutants,” says Philly resident Christine Dolle with Moms Clean Air Force, a national community of parents working to combat air pollution. “As a parent, I wouldn’t want my kids swinging on the swing 20 feet from [crude-oil train]. Would you?”

The Gulf of Mexico’s ‘Dead Zone’ A refinery in Houston, TX

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The Gulf of Mexico has accumulated waste from oil drilling and farmland pollution brought down the Mississippi River. Agricultural and sewage-plant runoff has also triggered algae blooms that block oxygen in the air from reaching the water, smothering marine life. A low-oxygen area known as the Dead Zone has grown to the size of Connecticut.

Even though chemical releases in the area are down 15% in the past decade, oil boomtowns like Houston (No. 3) and New Orleans (No. 6) are still suffering irreversible damage from toxic oil refining processes. In East Houston’s adjacent neighborhoods of Harrisburg and Manchester, low-income residents are struggling just to breathe.

Juan Parras, an advocate for environmental justice, notes that chemical plants are just one fence away from residential homes in the community. Manchester has more than 10 plants, including two oil refineries, and a synthetic rubber plant.

Like many residents of Manchester, Yudith Nieto, a 28-year-old teacher, grew up with asthma. Whenever she got a cold, it would last months because the air was so bad. Since she’s moved away from the neighborhood, her health has improved, she says.

Due to long-term exposure to chemicals, Manchester residents have a 24% to 30% higher cancer risk when compared with upscale west Houston communities, according to a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science charity.

“Those people who want to leave feel stuck,” Nieto says. “Nobody wants to buy their homes.”

Not-so-squeaky-clean Salt Lake City Blue skies and blue pools at a copper refinery in Utah.

JodiJacobson/Getty Images

Salt Lake City (No. 8) may appear to be a center of clean living (thanks, Mormons!) and pristine wilderness (thanks, snow-capped mountains!), but as it turns out, those picturesque peaks are actually bad for air quality. Cold air gets stuck between the mountains, trapping the toxic emissions from cars and industry. In the winter, Salt Lake City can be shrouded in smog for weeks in a row. Last year, the city barely saw clear air for half the year, according to the EPA.

West of Salt Lake City, Kennecott Utah Copper has the largest open copper mine in the world. Its power plant, smelter, and refinery released more than 200 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, water, and soil in 2015, according to EPA data.

But everyday human activity is responsible for much of the air’s contamination.

“The problem is automobiles, trucks, transportation that account for 50% of air pollution. … We are all part of it, we all pollute,” says Ted Wilson, a former mayor of Salt Lake City and director of Utah Clean Air Partnership.

* Toxic chemicals from factories were measured by total released amount per square mile and a calculated score that indicates the exposure and toxicity of those chemicals. The score used the EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, which take into account the amount of toxic chemicals released, each chemical’s relative toxicity, and potential human exposure.

Data source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Program, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Toxics Release Inventory Program, Air Quality Index, National Water Quality Monitoring Council

The post We Come Clean About the Least Polluted U.S. Cities (and the Dirtiest) appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2l30pRC

[gillespialfredoe01806ld]

We Come Clean About the Least Polluted U.S. Cities (and the Dirtiest)

jmsilva/iStock; Zview/iStock

Life in a big city can often seem downright hazardous to your health. There are overly aggressive drivers, reckless bicyclists, ill-tempered hot dog vendors, and pedestrians more engrossed in their Tinder accounts than the oncoming traffic—and that’s just when you’re trying to cross the street. Try fighting over the only-available taxi, the best bar stools during the NBA finals, or the last pair of Louboutins on sale in your size.

But most perilous of all might just be the environment itself.

That air you’re sucking in? It’s thick with exhaust fumes, secondhand smoke, and whatever’s being cooked up in that sketchy warehouse around the corner. Want to ease your scratchy throat with a cool drink of water from the nearby fountain? Watch out, it might contain lead!

Pollution has long been as integral to American urban life as slow-walking tourists, besuited executives, and trendy restaurants. But here’s the good news: There are metropolitan areas where you can enjoy the benefits of city life and breathe freely (and safely) while you do it.

Our data team crunched some numbers to find just where those urban Edens might be, and then donned biohazard gear to determine their most soiled siblings. A pattern soon emerged: The cleanest cities are typically set amid agricultural communities, with a national forest or natural reserve nearby. Meanwhile, the most polluted cities are former industrial hubs in the Rust Belt and along the Gulf of Mexico.

Overall, though, pollution in the U.S. has declined quite a bit in recent years. The nation’s industrial facilities released 25% less toxic chemicals in 2015 than in 2005, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Give the credit to green chemistry, improved waste management, and fewer industrial facilities, says EPA spokesman Robert Daguillard.

“Air quality has gotten much better because of preventions that were put into place under the 1970 Clean Air Act,” says Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association. The federal law was designed to limit air pollution.

And the impact is being felt. Los Angeles, once the American poster child for smog, still has some of the nation’s worst air quality, but it’s been steadily improving for decades. There were only six clear L.A. days (where air pollution poses little risk) in 1980, according to the EPA. Last year there were 65.

Despite the improvements, about half of Americans still live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, Nolen notes.

Los Angeles in 1956 (left) and 2017

Left: American Stock/Getty Images; right: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

To find the big cities where the air is pristine and the water safe to drink—and the ones where they aren’t—we ranked the 150 largest metros by the following criteria:

Toxic chemicals released from factories*

Greenhouse gas emissions per square mile

Number of Superfund sites per square mile

Air quality, measured by the number of clear days in a year

Water quality, measured by contaminants like lead, copper, arsenic, nitrate, and more

Ready? Take a deep breath: Here’s what we learned about the nation’s least and most polluted cities.

Florida leads the way Vibrant (and clean) community in Naples, FL

Anne Rippy/Getty Images

The Sunshine State might be best known for its oranges, brilliantly clothed retirees, and propensity for swing votes, but it also leads the country in air quality. With sea winds sweeping over the mostly flat terrain from both its east and west coasts, noxious emissions tend to be blown away. And there aren’t that many to start with: Florida has never been a heavy industrial state. The mainstays of the state’s economy—tourism, agriculture, and international trade—are all relatively light in pollution.

The cleanest city in our analysis, Naples, in southwest Florida, is famous as an ecotourism destination. Surrounded by natural reserves like the Everglades, Ten Thousand Islands, and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, it also has one of the few remaining undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America.

“Collier County [which includes Naples] has more acres of protected lands than any other county in Florida,” says Renee Wilson, spokeswoman for Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. “This is mostly due to the wetland characteristic of the Everglades … 110,000 acres of protected sanctuary.”

Tucked in Central Florida’s horse country, Ocala (No. 3) is home to a national forest with the world’s largest sand pine tree habitat—a glorious 673 square miles of vegetation, absorbing carbon dioxide in the air and pumping out fresh oxygen. Not enough for you? Check out the crystal-clear water of Silver Springs, best known for its star turn in the (many) underwater fight scenes of the classic Sean Connery–era James Bond movie “Thunderball.”

Oregon, the green state Solar panel array outside a Willamette Valley winery, near Salem, OR.

George Rose/Getty Images

Just outside Salem in northwest Oregon, Illahe Vineyard is committed to making wine without electricity or fossil fuels. The grapes are hand-picked and hauled to the winery by a team of horses instead of machines. Winemakers then take turns pedaling a bike to pump grapes into wine barrels.

That’s eco-conscious Salem (No. 2) for you—and Oregon as a whole. Last year, the state became the first in the nation to pass a law to phase out coal completely, requiring its largest utilities to supply at least half of their electricity from renewable resources, like wind and solar, by 2040.

Salem residents are crazy about their bikes, pushing the percentage of commuters who bike or walk to work 40% higher than the national average. With fewer cars hitting the roads, Salem didn’t have a single day with bad air last year, according to the EPA’s air quality index.

Oregon is famed for its craft beer, and anyone who enjoys a refreshing pint or three of pale ale should give credit where credit is due: the state’s clean (and tasty) water. Eugene’s (No. 7) water supplies come from the McKenzie River, which originates deep in the Willamette National Forest.

“We here in Eugene are lucky enough that the McKenzie River is pretty much ideal for making beer,” boasts Dan Russo from Oakshire Brewing.

Two Californias: Agricultural vs. industrial The city of Santa Rosa doesn’t produce a ton of toxic chemicals (literally).

George Rose/Getty Images

While Southern California has a lousy rep when it comes to pollution, two agricultural communities in Northern California are exactly the opposite.

Salinas (No. 10), which bills itself as the “Salad Bowl of the World” (you can’t make this up, folks), grows roughly 70% of the nation’s lettuce. Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck grew up here, and wrote lyrically about the region’s golden beauty in his 1952 novel, “East of Eden.”

More than a half-century later, Salinas Valley is still agricultural. Low industrial and traffic emissions, and openness to the sea, keep its air among the cleanest in the nation. It’s one of a handful of cities that have a low concentration of all major categories of harmful air pollutants.

Drive 50 miles north of San Francisco, and you enter a different world: Wine country, redwood forests, farms, and rivers are all part of the landscape of Santa Rosa (No. 5). Pollutants there are virtually nonexistent—the whole metro produced 121.2 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2015. To put it into perspective, the New York metro produced 630,000 times more.

OK, let’s go to the dirty side:

Rust Belt pollution renaissance Scenic Philadelphia, PA

Carol M. Highsmith/Buyenlarge/Getty Images

The Rust Belt has retired numerous coal-fired plants and made major efforts to clean up its air in the past three decades, but new environmental challenges have emerged: Pennsylvania has become the new hot spot for natural gas and oil production, along with all the toxic output that comes from it. The worst polluter in the country is Philadelphia, where a whopping 13.4 million pounds of poisonous chemicals were released in 2015 by oil refineries, shipyards, and auto manufacturers, the EPA reported.

The situation is most dire in Southwest Philly, where crude-oil trains chug through like clockwork. They’re sometimes called “bomb trains,” because the oil has an unwelcome tendency to occasionally catch fire and explode. Plumes of white smoke from oil refineries can be seen and sniffed from most residents’ backyards. The smoke isn’t always white, either—it was pink when a boiler exploded at the Veolia steam energy plant last year and black when fire broke out at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery the year before.

Almost half of Philadelphia children living in poverty have asthma, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.

“There are little lungs that are still developing that are taking in lots of toxic air. [They] are particularly susceptible to these pollutants,” says Philly resident Christine Dolle with Moms Clean Air Force, a national community of parents working to combat air pollution. “As a parent, I wouldn’t want my kids swinging on the swing 20 feet from [crude-oil train]. Would you?”

The Gulf of Mexico’s ‘Dead Zone’ A refinery in Houston, TX

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The Gulf of Mexico has accumulated waste from oil drilling and farmland pollution brought down the Mississippi River. Agricultural and sewage-plant runoff has also triggered algae blooms that block oxygen in the air from reaching the water, smothering marine life. A low-oxygen area known as the Dead Zone has grown to the size of Connecticut.

Even though chemical releases in the area are down 15% in the past decade, oil boomtowns like Houston (No. 3) and New Orleans (No. 6) are still suffering irreversible damage from toxic oil refining processes. In East Houston’s adjacent neighborhoods of Harrisburg and Manchester, low-income residents are struggling just to breathe.

Juan Parras, an advocate for environmental justice, notes that chemical plants are just one fence away from residential homes in the community. Manchester has more than 10 plants, including two oil refineries, and a synthetic rubber plant.

Like many residents of Manchester, Yudith Nieto, a 28-year-old teacher, grew up with asthma. Whenever she got a cold, it would last months because the air was so bad. Since she’s moved away from the neighborhood, her health has improved, she says.

Due to long-term exposure to chemicals, Manchester residents have a 24% to 30% higher cancer risk when compared with upscale west Houston communities, according to a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science charity.

“Those people who want to leave feel stuck,” Nieto says. “Nobody wants to buy their homes.”

Not-so-squeaky-clean Salt Lake City Blue skies and blue pools at a copper refinery in Utah.

JodiJacobson/Getty Images

Salt Lake City (No. 8) may appear to be a center of clean living (thanks, Mormons!) and pristine wilderness (thanks, snow-capped mountains!), but as it turns out, those picturesque peaks are actually bad for air quality. Cold air gets stuck between the mountains, trapping the toxic emissions from cars and industry. In the winter, Salt Lake City can be shrouded in smog for weeks in a row. Last year, the city barely saw clear air for half the year, according to the EPA.

West of Salt Lake City, Kennecott Utah Copper has the largest open copper mine in the world. Its power plant, smelter, and refinery released more than 200 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, water, and soil in 2015, according to EPA data.

But everyday human activity is responsible for much of the air’s contamination.

“The problem is automobiles, trucks, transportation that account for 50% of air pollution. … We are all part of it, we all pollute,” says Ted Wilson, a former mayor of Salt Lake City and director of Utah Clean Air Partnership.

* Toxic chemicals from factories were measured by total released amount per square mile and a calculated score that indicates the exposure and toxicity of those chemicals. The score used the EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, which take into account the amount of toxic chemicals released, each chemical’s relative toxicity, and potential human exposure.

Data source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Program, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Toxics Release Inventory Program, Air Quality Index, National Water Quality Monitoring Council

The post We Come Clean About the Least Polluted U.S. Cities (and the Dirtiest) appeared first on Real Estate News & Advice | realtor.com®.

from DIYS http://ift.tt/2l30pRC

[realtor10036]

We Come Clean About the Least Polluted U.S. Cities (and the Dirtiest)

jmsilva/iStock; Zview/iStock

Life in a big city can often seem downright hazardous to your health. There are overly aggressive drivers, reckless bicyclists, ill-tempered hot dog vendors, and pedestrians more engrossed in their Tinder accounts than the oncoming traffic—and that’s just when you’re trying to cross the street. Try fighting over the only-available taxi, the best bar stools during the NBA finals, or the last pair of Louboutins on sale in your size.

But most perilous of all might just be the environment itself.

That air you’re sucking in? It’s thick with exhaust fumes, secondhand smoke, and whatever’s being cooked up in that sketchy warehouse around the corner. Want to ease your scratchy throat with a cool drink of water from the nearby fountain? Watch out, it might contain lead!

Pollution has long been as integral to American urban life as slow-walking tourists, besuited executives, and trendy restaurants. But here’s the good news: There are metropolitan areas where you can enjoy the benefits of city life and breathe freely (and safely) while you do it.

Our data team crunched some numbers to find just where those urban Edens might be, and then donned biohazard gear to determine their most soiled siblings. A pattern soon emerged: The cleanest cities are typically set amid agricultural communities, with a national forest or natural reserve nearby. Meanwhile, the most polluted cities are former industrial hubs in the Rust Belt and along the Gulf of Mexico.

Overall, though, pollution in the U.S. has declined quite a bit in recent years. The nation’s industrial facilities released 25% less toxic chemicals in 2015 than in 2005, according to data from the Environmental Protection Agency. Give the credit to green chemistry, improved waste management, and fewer industrial facilities, says EPA spokesman Robert Daguillard.

“Air quality has gotten much better because of preventions that were put into place under the 1970 Clean Air Act,” says Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association. The federal law was designed to limit air pollution.

And the impact is being felt. Los Angeles, once the American poster child for smog, still has some of the nation’s worst air quality, but it’s been steadily improving for decades. There were only six clear L.A. days (where air pollution poses little risk) in 1980, according to the EPA. Last year there were 65.

Despite the improvements, about half of Americans still live with unhealthy levels of air pollution, Nolen notes.

Los Angeles in 1956 (left) and 2017

Left: American Stock/Getty Images; right: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

To find the big cities where the air is pristine and the water safe to drink—and the ones where they aren’t—we ranked the 150 largest metros by the following criteria:

Toxic chemicals released from factories*

Greenhouse gas emissions per square mile

Number of Superfund sites per square mile

Air quality, measured by the number of clear days in a year

Water quality, measured by contaminants like lead, copper, arsenic, nitrate, and more

Ready? Take a deep breath: Here’s what we learned about the nation’s least and most polluted cities.

Florida leads the way Vibrant (and clean) community in Naples, FL

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The Sunshine State might be best known for its oranges, brilliantly clothed retirees, and propensity for swing votes, but it also leads the country in air quality. With sea winds sweeping over the mostly flat terrain from both its east and west coasts, noxious emissions tend to be blown away. And there aren’t that many to start with: Florida has never been a heavy industrial state. The mainstays of the state’s economy—tourism, agriculture, and international trade—are all relatively light in pollution.

The cleanest city in our analysis, Naples, in southwest Florida, is famous as an ecotourism destination. Surrounded by natural reserves like the Everglades, Ten Thousand Islands, and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, it also has one of the few remaining undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America.

“Collier County [which includes Naples] has more acres of protected lands than any other county in Florida,” says Renee Wilson, spokeswoman for Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. “This is mostly due to the wetland characteristic of the Everglades … 110,000 acres of protected sanctuary.”

Tucked in Central Florida’s horse country, Ocala (No. 3) is home to a national forest with the world’s largest sand pine tree habitat—a glorious 673 square miles of vegetation, absorbing carbon dioxide in the air and pumping out fresh oxygen. Not enough for you? Check out the crystal-clear water of Silver Springs, best known for its star turn in the (many) underwater fight scenes of the classic Sean Connery–era James Bond movie “Thunderball.”

Oregon, the green state Solar panel array outside a Willamette Valley winery, near Salem, OR.

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Just outside Salem in northwest Oregon, Illahe Vineyard is committed to making wine without electricity or fossil fuels. The grapes are hand-picked and hauled to the winery by a team of horses instead of machines. Winemakers then take turns pedaling a bike to pump grapes into wine barrels.

That’s eco-conscious Salem (No. 2) for you—and Oregon as a whole. Last year, the state became the first in the nation to pass a law to phase out coal completely, requiring its largest utilities to supply at least half of their electricity from renewable resources, like wind and solar, by 2040.

Salem residents are crazy about their bikes, pushing the percentage of commuters who bike or walk to work 40% higher than the national average. With fewer cars hitting the roads, Salem didn’t have a single day with bad air last year, according to the EPA’s air quality index.

Oregon is famed for its craft beer, and anyone who enjoys a refreshing pint or three of pale ale should give credit where credit is due: the state’s clean (and tasty) water. Eugene’s (No. 7) water supplies come from the McKenzie River, which originates deep in the Willamette National Forest.

“We here in Eugene are lucky enough that the McKenzie River is pretty much ideal for making beer,” boasts Dan Russo from Oakshire Brewing.

Two Californias: Agricultural vs. industrial The city of Santa Rosa doesn’t produce a ton of toxic chemicals (literally).

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While Southern California has a lousy rep when it comes to pollution, two agricultural communities in Northern California are exactly the opposite.

Salinas (No. 10), which bills itself as the “Salad Bowl of the World” (you can’t make this up, folks), grows roughly 70% of the nation’s lettuce. Nobel Prize–winning author John Steinbeck grew up here, and wrote lyrically about the region’s golden beauty in his 1952 novel, “East of Eden.”

More than a half-century later, Salinas Valley is still agricultural. Low industrial and traffic emissions, and openness to the sea, keep its air among the cleanest in the nation. It’s one of a handful of cities that have a low concentration of all major categories of harmful air pollutants.

Drive 50 miles north of San Francisco, and you enter a different world: Wine country, redwood forests, farms, and rivers are all part of the landscape of Santa Rosa (No. 5). Pollutants there are virtually nonexistent—the whole metro produced 121.2 pounds of toxic chemicals in 2015. To put it into perspective, the New York metro produced 630,000 times more.

OK, let’s go to the dirty side:

Rust Belt pollution renaissance Scenic Philadelphia, PA

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The Rust Belt has retired numerous coal-fired plants and made major efforts to clean up its air in the past three decades, but new environmental challenges have emerged: Pennsylvania has become the new hot spot for natural gas and oil production, along with all the toxic output that comes from it. The worst polluter in the country is Philadelphia, where a whopping 13.4 million pounds of poisonous chemicals were released in 2015 by oil refineries, shipyards, and auto manufacturers, the EPA reported.

The situation is most dire in Southwest Philly, where crude-oil trains chug through like clockwork. They’re sometimes called “bomb trains,” because the oil has an unwelcome tendency to occasionally catch fire and explode. Plumes of white smoke from oil refineries can be seen and sniffed from most residents’ backyards. The smoke isn’t always white, either—it was pink when a boiler exploded at the Veolia steam energy plant last year and black when fire broke out at the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery the year before.

Almost half of Philadelphia children living in poverty have asthma, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania.

“There are little lungs that are still developing that are taking in lots of toxic air. [They] are particularly susceptible to these pollutants,” says Philly resident Christine Dolle with Moms Clean Air Force, a national community of parents working to combat air pollution. “As a parent, I wouldn’t want my kids swinging on the swing 20 feet from [crude-oil train]. Would you?”

The Gulf of Mexico’s ‘Dead Zone’ A refinery in Houston, TX

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The Gulf of Mexico has accumulated waste from oil drilling and farmland pollution brought down the Mississippi River. Agricultural and sewage-plant runoff has also triggered algae blooms that block oxygen in the air from reaching the water, smothering marine life. A low-oxygen area known as the Dead Zone has grown to the size of Connecticut.

Even though chemical releases in the area are down 15% in the past decade, oil boomtowns like Houston (No. 3) and New Orleans (No. 6) are still suffering irreversible damage from toxic oil refining processes. In East Houston’s adjacent neighborhoods of Harrisburg and Manchester, low-income residents are struggling just to breathe.

Juan Parras, an advocate for environmental justice, notes that chemical plants are just one fence away from residential homes in the community. Manchester has more than 10 plants, including two oil refineries, and a synthetic rubber plant.

Like many residents of Manchester, Yudith Nieto, a 28-year-old teacher, grew up with asthma. Whenever she got a cold, it would last months because the air was so bad. Since she’s moved away from the neighborhood, her health has improved, she says.

Due to long-term exposure to chemicals, Manchester residents have a 24% to 30% higher cancer risk when compared with upscale west Houston communities, according to a new study by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a nonprofit science charity.

“Those people who want to leave feel stuck,” Nieto says. “Nobody wants to buy their homes.”

Not-so-squeaky-clean Salt Lake City Blue skies and blue pools at a copper refinery in Utah.

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Salt Lake City (No. 8) may appear to be a center of clean living (thanks, Mormons!) and pristine wilderness (thanks, snow-capped mountains!), but as it turns out, those picturesque peaks are actually bad for air quality. Cold air gets stuck between the mountains, trapping the toxic emissions from cars and industry. In the winter, Salt Lake City can be shrouded in smog for weeks in a row. Last year, the city barely saw clear air for half the year, according to the EPA.

West of Salt Lake City, Kennecott Utah Copper has the largest open copper mine in the world. Its power plant, smelter, and refinery released more than 200 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air, water, and soil in 2015, according to EPA data.

But everyday human activity is responsible for much of the air’s contamination.

“The problem is automobiles, trucks, transportation that account for 50% of air pollution. … We are all part of it, we all pollute,” says Ted Wilson, a former mayor of Salt Lake City and director of Utah Clean Air Partnership.

* Toxic chemicals from factories were measured by total released amount per square mile and a calculated score that indicates the exposure and toxicity of those chemicals. The score used the EPA’s Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, which take into account the amount of toxic chemicals released, each chemical’s relative toxicity, and potential human exposure.

Data source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Superfund Program, Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, Toxics Release Inventory Program, Air Quality Index, National Water Quality Monitoring Council

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