Highwater Ethanol LLC, located just west of Lamberton on U.S. Highway 14, is getting ready to move from its construction phase into an operational phase.
Highwater CEO and president, Brian Kletscher, said Fagen and its other contractors are nearing completion of the plant, and with its staff already hired, Highwater is due to start up production of ethanol by the end of June.
Kletscher said expectations and excitement are running high.
“Construction should end by June 15, or so,” Kletscher said. “We are looking at starting up by late June, but that could go either side by a week or two. It depends on how things go from here.
“We are tidying things up a bit and getting everything into order.”
Kletscher said equipment is starting to be tested, and by June 20 he hopes to have a bulk of the testing nearly complete.
“We will be running more water through the system and some corn, too,” Kletscher said. “We need to make sure that everything is just so before we start.”
It has been a long journey to get to this point, Kletscher said.
He and the others on the board, who have been with the project from the start, have seen a lot happen since they decided to build and ethanol plant.
“The original concept for this plant was probably brought up in October 2005,” Kletscher said. “We started working in ernest on this in February 2006. The board was actually formed in March 2006, and Highwater became a recognized company in the State of Minnesota on May 5, 2006.
“It has been three years to actually get to the point where we are ready to go.”
Actual full-scale production of ethanol should begin the end of June, first part of July.
Kletscher said Highwater al-ready has rail cars lined up to carry away the ethanol and the dried distiller’s grain.
The ethanol plant is expected to process approximately 18 million bushels of locally grown corn into 50 million gallons of fuel grade ethanol annually. The plant would also produce 160,000 tons of distiller’s grain, the principle co-product of the ethanol manufacturing process.
The distiller’s grain would primarily be used for animal feed.

“We are able to sell a modified wet-cake,” Kletscher said. “We anticipate 20 to 30 percent of the distiller’s grains to be sold as wet-cake to local producers. Then the balance will go to other producers. Right now Cenex Harvest States handles our distiller’s grains. When we load them up, they’ll already have a destination for them.”
Kletscher said it is satisfying to see the project come together and with staff and management in place, the reality of starting operations is hitting home.
“The board is really excited to see this go from where we started three years ago, to where we are today – ready to receive corn and turn this big facility on,” Kletscher said. “The employees are doing their training and they are excited to get into it.”