A couple of months ago, Miller Duvall, president of the new Arts District boutique distillery The Spirit Guild got in touch with us to talk about water. Our interest piqued, we contacted him to hear more.
Water is definitely something we are interested in talking about, since for each new tree we plant, at least 3 years of watering is needed. Our maintenance partners KYCC take a water truck out at least once per month (when it is not raining) to give a good soaking to all of our young trees. Each tree gets 15 gallons of water per visit, which adds up over the years. Miller explained to us that The Spirit Guild needs to get rid of up to 1,500 gallons of water that they use in an enclosed recycled cooling system each month. Being environmentally conscious, they wanted to find a good use for this clean but not potable water. We immediately recognized this as a wonderful opportunity to sustain the trees we plant. While we work to source our water from the nearest purple pipe that provides municipal waste water – we were lucky enough to connect the dots locally right here in industrial downtown. (Pictures by Dustin Cole)
IDG: Given that you are new to the Arts District, what made you choose to locate here?
Miller: “Actually, we’re not all that new to the Arts District; we’ve been here for almost four years. It took us awhile to get our act together, so to speak. We chose our building for its M-3 zoning and the fact that it’s located on a pedestrian street.”
IDG: How did you hear about Industrial District Green?
Miller: “I remember hearing about IDG a couple years ago, through a fundraiser that I couldn’t attend.”
IDG: How did you get the idea for watering trees in the area with excess water from the distillation process?
Miller: “I’m not sure if it was my idea to use our waste water for trees. I can’t really recall the conversation but I think Gabrielle (IDG co-founder) was involved. And let’s just say that we have to periodically drain and replace the water from our cooling system.”
IDG: How difficult was it to pump the water from the distiller into KYCC’s water tank?
Miller: “Regarding transferring water, it’s really easy - we transfer big volumes liquid all the time.”
Ryan Allen (Environmental Services Manager at KYCC): “Pumping the water was a breeze. It only took about 10 minutes to get set up and fill the tank for our maintenance run. In a time when water conservation is a high priority in Los Angeles, this partnership demonstrates that outside of the box thinking is needed throughout LA to reduce our water use.”
The Spirit Guild
586 Mateo St.
LA, CA 90013
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