State requires action by WhistlePig Whiskey in Moriah; environmental impact of whiskey production under scrutiny
By Gwendolyn Craig
New lab analysis points to a wider outbreak of whiskey fungus than previously known in the northeastern corner of the Adirondacks.
As a result, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has directed WhistlePig Whiskey to submit plans for mitigating “the effects of its operations on neighboring properties” by April 20.
The department determined black fungus on four nearby homes, one that is three quarters of a mile from WhistlePig’s warehouses, was consistent with samples collected at the whiskey storage complex in the hamlet of Mineville in the town of Moriah.
Two of four residents, whose homes were tested in November for whiskey fungus, received the results this week and shared them with the Explorer. In a 10-page report, the fungus was identified as far away as 1,379 yards from WhistlePig, about double the distance of the Grover Hills neighborhood across the street where neighbors complained of black spots on their homes’ siding.
Both residents received DEC letters that said the samples “shows fungus consistent with the samples collected from the WhistlePig facility.”
The letters note the the state Department of Health’s position that “whiskey fungus is not typically associated with health effects and does not pose a unique or significant health risk to humans.”
In a report attached to the letter, the DEC said its lab lacks the capability at this time to analyze biological material. To positively identify whiskey fungus, the department added, samples will need to be sent for additional testing.
But the department told the Explorer it is not seeking further analysis, and it is confident “the samples matched the morphology of the whiskey fungus from the WhistlePig facility.”
“DEC’s report is a survey designed to determine if a source has an unwanted impact on another property,” the department said. “In this case, the survey determined the WhistlePig facility is the likely source given the location and amount of fungus present. The precise identification of the fungus is unnecessary to determine if there was an impact, therefore further lab analysis is not warranted at this time.”
James Scott, who studies whiskey fungus at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, reviewed the DEC lab report for the Explorer.
“I can confidently confirm that this is what Baudoinia looks like by SEM (scanning electron microscopy), and I am highly confident that these results are accurate despite having used this unusual method,” Scott said. Baudoinia is the scientific name for whiskey fungus.
Gregory Furness, a 77-year-old retired historian who has lived in Moriah since the mid-1980s, was one of the recipients of the DEC’s latest lab results. His residence is about three quarters of a mile from the storage facility and dark substances began spotting his house about a year ago, he said.
“I think it’s pretty definitive that they’re admitting that whatever it is,” Furness said, “it’s originating from that facility and they are responsible for it.”
Other agencies step in
It’s unclear why the department took so long to release results to residents, but the Explorer confirmed that the state has solicited the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the fungus query. The Adirondack Park Agency is also involved in an investigation.
“We are discussing the Moriah whiskey aging warehouse fugitive emission issues and citizen mold concerns with the NYSDEC,” said an EPA spokesperson. The agency is reviewing Clean Air Act requirements for such facilities “in response to recent citizen concerns and complaints across the US regarding mold contamination potentially caused by these facilities,” the spokesperson added.
The APA, which oversees public and private development in the 6-million-acre Adirondack Park, has issued multiple permits for the warehouse complex in the town of Moriah and hamlet of Mineville. It did not respond to the Explorer’s latest request for comment on WhistlePig, but in a past response had said there were “no unresolved enforcement matters related to the Agency. APA does not discuss details of actions undertaken to investigate alleged violations.”
In response to the Explorer’s records request for whiskey fungus communications, the APA denied the records in part “because the identified records are compiled for enforcement purposes at this time.” The agency did not clarify if the enforcement involved WhistlePig Whiskey.
Ahren Wolson, director of operations at WhistlePig, did not immediately respond to the Explorer’s questions about the APA probe or the DEC’s directive and lab results.
Previously, Wolson maintained that the company is not responsible for all cases of black fungus in the region and that ethanol vapors are “naturally occurring fugitive emissions.” WhistlePig and its subsidiary Moriah Ventures, have “cleaned a number of nearby homes over the years to assuage some residents’ concerns,” he said. “That is something we continue to do voluntarily, on a case-by-case basis.”
In previous communications, Scott said if there are no other facilities releasing ethanol, then it is possible to attribute the fungus growth to WhistlePig.
Furness and Mike Stoddard, whose residence was closest to the facility of the four tested, is concerned about the fungus getting worse now that WhistlePig is erecting more storage warehouses. Furness filed a complaint with the APA in February and is frustrated that he has not heard back. He would like to see the agency force WhistlePig to halt construction until the company complies with DEC’s order.
Most of the residents, who have been dealing with the black goo on their house siding, would like the company to provide cleaning services and install filtration systems to prevent the fungus from growing in the first place.
“It’s outrageous that they’re expecting the community of Mineville and Moriah to economically subsidize their operation,” Furness said. “People are actually paying an annual fee to clean their crap off of their houses so they can stay in operation. I don’t understand how that’s legal.”
Uncovering the spread
At one of the entrances to the Grover Hills neighborhood, where multiple residents spoke to the Explorer about their whiskey fungus concerns last fall, a sign appeared recently on a utility pole.
“Fungus Town USA,” it read. “Tough Luck, Suckers! Our profits beat your rights hands down.”
The Explorer first wrote about whiskey fungus in the town of Moriah in November. WhistlePig Whiskey is based in Shoreham, Vt. The company makes whiskey from rye and distributes to all 50 states.
It applied for a farm exemption under Act 250 in Vermont, a land use and development law intended to mitigate environmental and community impacts, to build additional storage warehouses. The state denied the proposal. After making its way through the Vermont courts, an appeals judge ruled in 2015 that WhistlePig did not qualify for the exemption.
A year later, WhistlePig purchased land in the Adirondacks from the Essex County Industrial Development Agency. It built seven, 14,000-square-foot warehouses and one 14,000 square-foot bottling plant in the Moriah Business Park. The ECIDA sold additional land to the company since, and it is building eight more 14,000 square-foot warehouses. In all, the company is expected to age more than 200,000 barrels once all the buildings are erected.
Asked about why WhistlePig chose Moriah, Wolson said it “took a critical look at the financial landscape and made the choice to purchase land in New York. As both a longtime resident of this Town, and as the Director of Operations for Moriah Ventures, I’m thrilled that the company has decided to invest so heavily in this small Town – your questions certainly make it seem like you are unhappy that we’ve brought full-time jobs to this community, but we will not apologize for that.”
WhistlePig employs 34 full-time employees at its Moriah location. The town recently lost a 100-person employer in 2021 when the state shuttered the Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility.
Whiskey fungus, also called warehouse staining fungus and distillery fungus, forms as spirits age and about 2% to 5% of the alcohol turns to ethanol vapor. The ethanol feeds the fungus. The fungus can develop into crusty black flakes on house siding, traffic signs and even trees. From Tennessee near a Jack Daniel’s plant, to Maine near the Wiggly Bridge Distillery, whiskey fungus has been a concern of neighbors.
In 2020, the DEC received its first complaint about whiskey fungus in Moriah, but did not conclude what it was. In 2023, swabs tested from High Peaks Hospice’s administrative building, also in the Moriah Business Park, came back positive for whiskey fungus.
“Baudonia is a naturally occurring organism that has lived within the Adirondack Park for much longer than Moriah Ventures has had a presence here,” Wolson said.
The latest samples taken in Moriah, however, show the fungus “in greater quantities than what is naturally found in the environment,” the DEC report said.
The state Department of Health told the Explorer the fungus “is unlikely to pose a significant health risk to humans,” but there have been few studies done.
Matthew Dogali, president and CEO of the American Distilled Spirits Alliance, pointed to an Indiana State Department of Health fact sheet that recommends personal protective equipment for cleaning products when removing the fungus, but not for protection against the fungus itself.
Further actions
On Nov. 9, the DEC took fungus samples from WhistlePig and four nearby homes. Residents were told they would have their results in six to eight weeks.
Furness grew tired of waiting for the results and in early March paid over $500 for samples to be analyzed by a private lab. About a week ago, the results came back inconclusive. He was glad to read the DEC’s report on Thursday.
Furness also reached out to the environmental advocacy organization Protect the Adirondacks. Furness believes WhistlePig is violating its APA permits, which stipulates “no off-site emissions” and “no undue adverse impacts.”
Protect the Adirondacks agreed with him and sent a letter to DEC and APA calling for an investigation for potential permit violations.
Chris Amato, attorney and conservation director for the organization, said the facility is violating its DEC air regulations, particularly a clause that “prohibits emissions that injure human health or property, or that reasonably interfere with use and enjoyment of property.”
Waiting for solutions
In communications with some frustrated neighbors, WhistlePig staff have said they will offer cleaning services to buildings within a 300-yard radius. Now that the company has been linked to fungus on homes beyond that scope, it’s unclear if it will reconsider its policy.
It’s also unclear how WhistlePig will address the DEC’s directive for a mitigation plan. Wolson had told the Explorer that air filtration “is neither needed nor possible. In addition to the well-established safety of these emissions the EPA also acknowledges that no reasonably available control technology exists.”
Dogali provided the Explorer with a 1997 EPA emissions report about distilled spirits. In it, the federal agency says “alcohol is unavoidably released because the wooden barrels, in which it is aged, are porous to ethanol vapors.”
Some air pollution controls, the agency wrote, are not used because they would poorly impact the whiskey.
“If feasible without impairment of product quality, ethanol recovery would require the use of a collection system to capture gaseous emissions in the warehouse and to process the gasses through a recovery system prior to venting them to the atmosphere or recirculating them through the warehouse,” the report read.
“It’s probably so expensive that they’d rather deal with the political fallout,” Stoddard said.
Dogali, who has spent years fighting disinformation on whiskey fungus, said most of the time the issue comes down to “not in my backyard,” or NIMBY, complaints. “It is an issue that papers are willing to run a story on because it seems spooky and mysterious, even though it’s been around for hundreds of years. …The same papers won’t run a story on the jobs we add or the taxes we pay or the people that are happy we build businesses in rural America,” he said.
Furness looks at the fungus situation as history repeating itself.
The town has watched various industries come and go from the mining operations of Witherbee Sherman to Republic Steel. Before legislation was passed to protect miners, the work was “worse than horrendous,” Furness said.
Now those operations have left, the local prison has closed, and Furness sees WhistlePig advertised as “one more chance for some company to come in here and claim to be the economic salvation of Moriah, and screw the residents.”
Editor’s note: This story removed a photo of land clearing that was mistakenly identified as part of WhistlePig Whiskey’s expansion. It is not for the whiskey company’s project, but for another privately owned business in the Moriah Business Park.
Top photo: One of the production buildings for WhistlePig Whiskey in Moriah. Photo by Eric Teed
Who were the elected officials in the town to approve this?