ATLANTA,None — Mark Gwines is a fourth-generation farmer whose family has worked their land in Worth County since the 1880s.
Gwines is uneasy.
"It worried me a lot. It still worries me a lot. A lot of sleepless or whatever," said Gwines as he planted corn.
Less than an hour away in Mitchell County sits the source of Gwines' anxiety. It's the location of Georgia's lone-functioning ethanol plant. It's now bankrupt.
Gwines had sold the plant corn on credit.
"How much money are we talking?" asked Channel 2's Jim Strickland.
"Our family, probably $280,000, which is a big hit," said Gwines.
Southwest Georgia Ethanol LLC wouldn't let our camera come in the gate. The plant welcomed TV last fall as Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack toured the plant and touted ethanol's future.
In remarks made in October 2010, Vilsack said, "$95 billion will be invested in rural communities, and the industry tells us 1 million jobs will have been created."
Bankruptcy came 14 weeks later.
"Hopefully everything will work out and we'll get paid what we're owed, you know," said Gwines.
We've discovered in bankruptcy documents that not all farmers got burned. Tommy Dollar, a farmer and chairman of the ethanol plant's parent company, also sold corn to the plant.
In the four months prior to the bankruptcy, Dollar got paid $2,247,000 for his corn.
Others with inside connections got another $880,000 for their corn.
Lawyers representing unconnected farmers like Gwines are investigating the fairness of it all.
Strickland found Dollar outside bankruptcy court in Albany. He refused to comment, as did plant CEO Murray Campbell.
Even if all farmers do get paid, Georgia Tech fuel expert Sam Shelton said long-term prospects for a Georgia ethanol plant are shaky.
"Unless we dramatically increase our corn production, I just don't see how we're going to compete with the ethanol plants in the Midwest," he said.
In the South, farmers have to irrigate corn, while those in the Midwest do not. As a result, Georgia doesn't grow near enough to satisfy the ethanol plant's needs. Most of its corn comes from the Midwest by rail.
The plant owes Norfolk Southern about $1.8 million.
In court documents, the company blamed the bankruptcy on the high price of corn and low prices for ethanol.
They had operational problems and even an explosion.
The only public money at stake is an $8 million bond issue from the Mitchell County Development Authority.
Documents show Wells Fargo bought the bonds. The plant's attorney said taxpayers will have to repay the debt if the plant can not.