Ethanol plant may squeeze farmers again

Peoria Journal-Star (Illinois)
By Brenda Rothert
Posted Oct 31, 2008 @ 12:45 AM

Shareholders asked to pay up for water treatment facility near defunct Canton plant site

CANTON — Farmer shareholders who lost thousands of dollars in a bankrupt ethanol plant outside Canton are getting letters this week telling them they'll have to pay more.

HWS Energy Partners, the Champaign company that built a water treatment plant at the ethanol plant site, wants members of the defunct Central Illinois Energy Cooperative to make good on a lease agreement - to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"It's like a slap in the face," Fulton County Farm Bureau Director Elaine Stone said Thursday. "It's not realistic to ask these stockholders to put up any more money after they've lost everything."

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