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He said the industry is investing in treatment plants and ways to compost vinasse.

“The majority of tequila producers in all Jalisco and I believe in all of Mexico seek licenses so their vinasse can be put in the ground, in supposedly controlled land, but the truth is that many what they do is nothing more than cool it, allow it to settle and then dump it in rivers, reservoirs, the sea.”

Authorities determined that millions of liters of a residue known as vinasse created in tequila’s distillation spilled into the Las Animas creek that flows into the reservoir.

A student thesis at the University of Guadalajara determined that vinasse from distillers and sewage had flowed from the Tonaya river into the Tuxcacuesco.

The plant was closed at the end of September after an inspection revealed that one of its lagoons holding vinasse had a rupture in one of its walls, Flores said.