September 10, 2022 by stopthesethings 2 Comments
As hundreds of thousands of toxic wind turbine blades head for landfills near you, thousands more are being dumped illegally.
Across the USA, wind power outfits are being repeatedly busted for dumping their blades and simply cutting and running.
Last August, we reported on one blade ‘recycling’ company busted for illegally storing hundreds of wind turbine blades at three sites in Iowa. Global Fiberglass Solutions Inc was busted for piling up over 1,300 blades at three makeshift dumps – despite claiming it would ‘recycle’ them.
In Oregon, one so-called wind turbine blade ‘recycler’ was whacked with a $57,282 fine for dumping hundreds of dilapidated blades right next to a natural spring and wetland. It made the bogus claim that the 2,741 cubic yard cocktail of fibreglass and toxic plastics amounted to “clean fill”.
The same model has been employed by wind power outfits in New York State, and, as detailed below, in the great State of Texas.
Old windfarm blades causing problems in Nolan CountyKTXSTyler Greene25 August 2022
SWEETWATER, Texas — The wind farms in Nolan County brought big bucks into the area, but with those turbines needing new blades after a few years, finding a place to store the old blades was becoming a challenge.
However, one company approached offered a possible solution and the city of Sweetwater was all ears the company would store the old blades in two facilities and then break the fiberglass blades down and sell them to other companies.
But, according to Miesha Adames, the company brought the blades but that’s all and the perspective from above shows how vast these piles are:
“These piles have been sitting here since 2018 and we estimate that between this site and the other site on Highway 70, that there are 4000 turbine blades. The site on HWY 70 is a little over 10 acres and this site is a little smaller but as you can see, the piles are just continuing to grow and grow.”
We reached out to the company which was going to get rid of the blades but when we called, they didn’t answer.
The city of Sweetwater says it sent the company several notices to live up to its end of the deal but when they didn’t get anything back and with the huge number of blades on the ground they realized the pile was unsafe in the community.
Assistant City Manager for Operations for the city, Dana Schoening said, “In this case, with all the windmill blades it’s a bleeding site. It’s harboring rodents, snakes and all kinds of animals that shouldn’t be out there. It’s a health nuisance, it’s a public safety nuisance and so we considered it to be a nuisance. What that does is that gives us the ability as a city to declare it and then we can actually have that authority by those ordinances to go on the property and clean it up so it gives us the ability to go on that property and take care of business that quite honestly this particular company has refused to take care of.”
Although the city has no confirmed plans yet, they are hoping to get rid of the turbines soon.KTXS
The wind industry: out to set all new sustainability standard.