The corn plant had asked about getting on the system, and a price was quoted to them and they backed out. They said it was too high priced. So Marshall and the corn plant were dropped at that time. They never were figured in the plant capacity. According to some, who are critical of the project, the timeline of events tells a different story.
Records indicate the corn plant dropped out of the project five months after capacity was doubled.
Even more damning is a statement by a Lincoln Pipestone engineer two years ago that a planned Marshall connection was built into the size of the system. If it's true and if that information had been known in the early '90s, federal financing of the project might have been jeopardized. Minnesota DNR employees say they heard the statement, which the engineer now denies making. A contract was signed in 1997. Rural Utilities Service Program Director Jim Maras says there is nothing the government can do now to force the corn plant to pay its share of the project.