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Friday, September 27, 2024

State of Iowa sues over stockpiles of old wind turbine blades

State of Iowa sues over stockpiles of old wind turbine blades

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird has filed a lawsuit accusing an out-of-state company and two of its top executives of failing to dispose of over a thousand decommissioned wind turbine blades properly.

According to the lawsuit, General Electric and MidAmerican Energy paid millions to a company in Washington state to cut up, transport, and recycle wind turbine blades. The attorney general says that company, Global Fiberglass Solutions, illegally dumped about 1300 wind turbine blades at parking lots in Newton and in fields in Ellsworth and Atlantic. The attorney general says those stockpiles posed an environmental risk and the company refused to act despite orders from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The lawsuit seeks civil penalties of up to $5000 per day — over a roughly five-year period — for violations of the state’s solid waste disposal rules.

Both General Electric and MidAmerican Energy have had the blades removed from the three sites in Iowa and recycled out of state. General Electric has also sued Global Fiberglass Solutions for failing to dispose of retired wind turbine blades in Texas and in Iowa.

Attempts to reach a spokesperson for Global Fiberglass Solutions were unsuccessful.

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