WhistlePig deflects responsibility for whiskey fungus

WhistlePig Whiskey says it will consider cleaning more spotted homes in Moriah

By Gwendolyn Craig

A whiskey distillery aging its alcohol in the northeastern corner of the Adirondack Park said it would expand voluntarily washing homes in response to neighborhood complaints of whiskey fungus and a state-ordered mitigation plan.

However, in a letter to state officials, WhistlePig Whiskey sought to distance itself from responsibility for moldy substances appearing on buildings near its whiskey warehouses in the town of Moriah’s Mineville area. It said that the state Department of Environmental Conservation has provided “no information to demonstrate that our operations are causing any adverse impact in or around the facility environs, nor do we objectively believe that we are.” 

“Purely in the spirit of cooperation, we are willing to make a further good-faith adjustment to our existing practice of washing nearby homes,” wrote Ahren Wolson, director of operations at WhistlePig. The company makes its whiskey in Shoreham, Vermont, and stores it in Moriah.

Wolson declined to provide a specific radius the company will consider for washing homes. Its original policy set the limit at 300 yards of WhistlePig’s operations. He suggested the company would consider cleaning services for select homes southeast of the facilities and offered to get in touch with complainants. 

The DEC said it “is taking residents’ concerns seriously” and is reviewing the company’s response to the agency’s order for a corrective action plan. As of Monday, the DEC had not issued any warnings or violations to WhistlePig.

The agency issued a report in March showing multiple homes, including one as far as three quarters of a mile from WhistlePig’s warehouses, had “fungus consistent with the samples collected from the WhistlePig facility.”

This map shows the WhistlePig storage facilities in the Moriah Business Park and their proximity to other businesses and homes. A black growth consistent with whiskey fungus has been identified on the nearby High Peaks Hospice administrative building and homes, including one as far as three quarters of a mile away. The company had said it would consider cleaning homes within 300 yards of its facilities (shown in yellow) on a case-by-case basis and have since said it would expand the distance to an unspecified radius. Map by Zachary Matson

The battle over responsibility

In interviews with the Adirondack Explorer, multiple residents expressed frustration with the fungus in their community and pointed out the gummy black substance that has spread on their houses’ siding. Many of the residents have lived in Mineville and Moriah for decades and had noticed the fungus growing within the last few years. 

Wolson has stressed, including in his letter to the DEC, that whiskey fungus is naturally occurring in the environment. The DEC report, however, said the fungus samples on Mineville homes are “in greater quantities than what is naturally found in the environment.”

In his letter, Wolson underscored that the DEC lab lacks the ability to identify whiskey fungus. The department has said it is confident the microscopic images it took of samples are of whiskey fungus, and an independent expert the Explorer consulted agreed. But Wolson said DEC’s “request that we submit a corrective action plan seems founded more on conjecture than on any objective evaluation.” 

Whiskey fungus, or Baudoinia compniacensis, feeds off of ethanol vapors that distilleries often call the “angel’s share.”

The fungus, state health departments have said, does not rise to the level of a public health threat. But it is a nuisance for homeowners and business owners in the path of evaporation. From the Jack Daniel’s plant in Tennessee, to the Wiggly Bridge Distillery in Maine, whiskey fungus is a growing issue facing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators.

The DEC consulted the EPA on the Mineville case, records show, the first known case of whiskey fungus in New York. 

Next steps

It appears the state and federal regulators are building a case showing “the passive venting of whiskey aging emissions is not considered fugitives.” Fugitive emissions are those that cannot be controlled through a vent or stack, according to the EPA. If the ethanol vapors were no longer considered fugitive emissions, it could mean distilleries will have to install air filtration systems. 

A nearly 30-year-old EPA report the American Distilled Spirits Alliance provided the Explorer noted that air pollution controls could impact the taste of the whiskey and may not be feasible.

In March, the EPA told the Explorer it is discussing the Moriah whiskey facility and is reviewing the Clean Air Act for such facilities “in response to recent citizen concerns and complaints across the US regarding mold contamination potentially caused by these facilities.” The EPA’s enforcement and compliance arm provided the department with a 2016 example of its notice of violation of the federal Clean Air Act to an Indiana-based distillery, records show.

WhistlePig Whiskey and its subsidiary Moriah Ventures, began building about 100,000 square-feet of barrel storage warehouses after purchasing land from the Essex County Industrial Development Agency in 2016. The company is continuing its expansion at the Moriah Industrial Park and land outside of it. Pre-Tech Plastics, the Moriah Health Center and High Peaks Hospice are also located in the business park. Pre-Tech Plastics is also expanding there.

The DEC and the Adirondack Park Agency have received complaints about the whiskey fungus. The APA, overseeing public and private development in the Adirondack Park, issued a number of permits for the WhistlePig warehouses. 

Top photo: One of the distillery buildings at WhistlePig in Moriah. Photo by Eric Teed

Adirondack policy, in plain speak

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