Ethanol Plant Shuts Down

Georgia's largest ethanol plant is closing for a week following an accident. First United Ethanol on Camilla in south Georgia says a ruptured evaporator joint caused a major steam blow off Tuesday. The plant opened only a few months ago and makes ethanol from corn. The plant says it was likely a faulty valve but a full investigation is underway.

(Atlanta Business Chronicle)

Georgia's first corn ethanol plant opens

After three years and 185-million dollars in investments, Georgia's first corn ethanol plant is open for business in Camilla.
On Friday the plant began grinding corn. This is the first step in producing the alternative fuel. By the end of the week the plant should have full-flowing ethanol.
First United Ethanol says the plant will produce around 100-million gallons a year. More than 850 investors, many of them from Southwest Georgia, helped fund the project according to the company's Alicia Shirah.

"One of their main goals was to bring about economic stimulus to this area. What they have seen out in the Midwest are these facilities coming in and really generating an economic boost for rural towns such as Camilla."

The plant is the only facility of its size in the Southeast. Much of the corn will be supplied by Georgia farmers. The rest will be brought in from the Midwest. The plant employs 55 people.

Millions of pecans burn

Millions of pounds of Georgia’s pecans are up in flames in south Georgia. The fire, which began Tuesday afternoon, engulfed two warehouses of Camilla Commodity Services, Inc., in Mitchell County. Officials say the fire is under control, though it is still burning today. Firefighters from several counties have been helping fight the blaze.

Mitchell County schools have been closed since Tuesday afternoon due to low water pressure from the firefighting efforts. Local news outlets are reporting early estimates of 8 to 10 million pounds of pecans lost in the fire. That’s roughly 5 to 7 percent of this year’s bumper pecan crop in Georgia. A pecan expert at UGA estimates Georgia farmers harvested 140 million pounds of pecans this season. There’s no word on the cause of the fire. Neither the Camilla Fire Chief nor a spokesman for the company could be reached for comment.

Camilla farmers ired over water cuts

Bubba Johnson checks freshly-dug peanuts on his Newton
farm on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2007. (AP Photo/Todd Stone)

Southwest Georgia is one of the most productive agricultural regions in Dixie, but you wouldn't know it from the soil under the corn, peanuts and cotton. It can be sandy, it can be pebbly, and it doesn't hold water very well.

That begins to explain why irrigation is so vital around here — and why the mere suggestion that some of the region's water might be taken away fills folks with fear and resentment.

"Atlanta needs to take a hard look at what's happening in the metro area," said Bubba Johnson, a 68-year-old farmer who grows cotton and corn on a 500-acre plot. "There's going to be a heck of a battle if they try to come down here to get the water."

Johnson, president of the Mitchell County Farm Bureau, is pushing his neighbors and lawmakers to fight for local control of water.

"Before any water is transferred out, you have to make sure needs here are taken care of," he said.

Click here for more GPB News coverage of the drought.

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(The Associated Press)