Minsa Southwest is a Mexican-owned corporation operating facilities in Red Oak, Iowa and Muleshoe, Texas. Minsa Muleshoe, being adjacent to corn country, makes 26 varieties of masa. Some 400,000 pounds of corn are cooked, cooled, washed, ground, tested, and packaged in Minsa's 24-hour Muleshoe operation. The process requires some 200,000 gallons of water which is pumped each day from nearby groundwater wells. Plans for increasing output will increase the water requirements 50 percent.
Lime turns the water basic, making it unsuitable for standard disposal.
Therefore, Minsa disposes the wastewater by irrigating nearby land. West Texas engineer David Krause, P.E., invited to Minsa to consider options for water reuse. Both Minsa and Krause knew there had to be a better way to manage Minsa's part of Muleshoe's precious water resource, and reusing the water was the obvious way. Minsa could continue with 100 percent irrigation, go to 100 percent reuse, or combine the two. Obviously, reuse would save water and pumping costs.