A Tenino distillery is among those relieved by the elimination of more than $14,000 in fees the government saddled many businesses with for making much needed sanitizer.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S., personal protective equipment and other supplies — specifically hand sanitizer — were scarce. Craft distillers across the state and country made the decision to transition from spirits to sanitizer to help meet the enormous demand for the product.
Sandstone Distillery in Tenino, with its tasting room closed due to the pandemic, was one of the distilleries working around the clock to produce the much-needed disinfectant.
John Bourdon, the owner, said that over the course of the pandemic so far, they have given away more than 11,000 small bottles of hand sanitizer for free along with several hundred gallons to various organizations and people in need.
The distillery produced about 7,000 gallons of the hand and surface sanitizer in total.
“It was at a time when even the federal government couldn’t get hand sanitizer. We had the Army come here, the Navy, the Air Force, the post office, medical facilities — and I’m out in the woods,” Bourdon said.
Much like seamstresses who began sewing masks at the start of the pandemic, the distillers saw a way they could help in a time of need and got to work. Sandstone Distillery followed the guidelines from the World Health Organization and produced sanitizer that was at least 80 percent alcohol.
“It’s been really, really cool to see how the community pulls together quickly. Once we heard about the hand sanitizer shortage and realized there was something we could do about it, we went into full-scale production,” Justin Bourdon, a Sandstone distiller, told The Chronicle in March of 2020.
“Well, no good deed goes unpunished, huh?” Sandstone Distillery posted on Facebook after learning that distillers who stepped up to make the hand sanitizer during the pandemic were hit with $14,060 in fees issued by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with a due date of Feb. 11.
Prior to issuing the fees, there was a provision of the CARES Act that reformed the regulations of non-prescription drugs, which, in turn, classified distilleries that produced sanitizer as "over-the-counter drug monograph facilities." It saddled the distilleries with the fees that come with that classification.
“It just doesn’t seem right. It’s like a bait and switch. They said ‘you can do this’ and then they say, ‘oh, we’ve got to charge you for what you’ve already done’... Most of the distilleries are just ‘mom and pop’ and it’s putting them through a lot,” Bourdon said early Friday afternoon.
On behalf of distillers, the American Craft Spirits Association (ACSA) contacted lawmakers and the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) to fight the unexpected fees — and won. The fees issued to Tenino’s Sandstone Distillery and all others were revoked by the end of the day on Friday.
“We are incredibly grateful to HHS for opening a dialogue with us, and look forward to working more collaboratively together in 2021 with FDA to ensure our members are treated fairly for the challenges they face to support their hometowns via hand sanitizer production in the wake of COVID-19,” Becky Harris, president of the ACSA, said.
Fortunately, the anxious feelings caused by the looming $14,060 in fees from the federal government only lasted a few days for distillers and their families. However, with the closure of bars, tasting rooms and restaurants, most distillers are still struggling to get by after a tough year.
More information about Sandstone Distillery in Tenino can be found at www.sandstonedistillery.com/ or on their Facebook page @SandstoneDistillery.
