Initial reports put the July 31 spill from The Hess Collection Winery at 1.9 million gallons. But Keith Lichten of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board said Tuesday that the treatment pond, though it can hold about 1.9 million gallons, was about half-full. 

A Napa County notice described the wastewater as “domestic sewage and winery process wastewater.” It apparently wasn’t raw sewage, but had seen a degree of treatment. 

Wastewater apparently escaped through a hole in the berm, Lichten said. He hadn’t seen the berm himself and said Hess is having an engineering firm investigate. The ponds had operated for 30 years without this type of problem. 

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