{"id":281245,"date":"2023-09-30T14:06:52","date_gmt":"2023-09-30T12:06:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=281245"},"modified":"2023-09-30T14:07:08","modified_gmt":"2023-09-30T12:07:08","slug":"dump-run-thousands-of-toxic-wind-turbine-blades-pile-up-across-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=281245","title":{"rendered":"Dump & Run: Thousands of Toxic Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up Across\u00a0America"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From STOP THESE THINGS<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Across the USA, wind power outfits are being repeatedly busted for dumping their blades and simply cutting and running. Then there are scammers like Global Fiberglass Solutions Inc which makes claims about recycling dumped blades, notwithstanding there is no market for ground up toxic waste, funnily enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Principal among the toxic agents to be found in turbine blades is Bisphenol A<\/a> \u2013 a compound banned in numerous countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in August 2021, Global Fiberglass Solutions Inc was busted for piling up over 1,300 blades at three makeshift dumps in Iowa<\/a> \u2013 despite claiming it would \u2018recycle\u2019 them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a model it has chosen to repeat across the United States, including West Texas where locals are outraged. Stories about recycling blades keep being recycled, while thousands more blades pile up in dumps that resemble \u2018green\u2019 energy graveyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russell Gold reports on the American wind industry\u2019s dump and run tactics below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thousands of Old Wind Turbine Blades Pile Up in West Texas<\/strong>
Texas Monthly
Russell Gold
24 August 2023<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year since 1958, the West Texas town of Sweetwater has hosted the World\u2019s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, which is exactly what it sounds like. Thousands of the venomous ophidians are rooted out of their dens and brought to the Nolan County Coliseum to be gawked at, \u201cmilked,\u201d and often beheaded and skinned. It started as a way for the region to rid itself of some of its least-welcome residents. Now community leaders wish they could do the same with several giant piles of scrap that have for too long been left to bake in the sun. But that\u2019s proving to be much trickier than wrangling reptiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About forty miles west of Abilene on Interstate 20, Sweetwater has unwittingly become home to what is possibly the world\u2019s largest collection of unwanted wind turbine blades. When forklifts deposited the first of these in a field behind the apartment complex where Pamala Meyer lives, on the west side of town, in 2017, she wasn\u2019t initially bothered. But then the blades\u2014between 150 and 200 feet in length and mostly made of composite materials such as fiberglass with a binding resin\u2014kept coming. Each was cut into thirds, with each segment longer than a school bus. Thousands arrived over several years, eventually blanketing more than thirty acres, in stacks rising as high as basketball backboards. Every few dozen feet, a break among the stacks leads into an industrial hedge maze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a hazard all the way around,\u201d Meyer said. She worries about neighborhood children exploring the unfenced piles and says that stagnant pools of water inside the blades breed swarms of mosquitos. Matt Jackson, who works in a nearby warehouse, has other concerns. The piles create shaded nooks and crannies, perfect for Sweetwater\u2019s unofficial mascot. \u201cIt\u2019s just a big rattlesnake farm,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The blades were brought here by Global Fiberglass Solutions<\/a>, a company based in Washington State that announced in 2017 its intention to recycle blades from wind farms across the region. Instead of ending up in landfills, they would be ground up into a reusable material that could be turned into pallets, railroad ties, or flooring panels. Global Fiberglass is one of a few companies attempting to develop a viable business from the impossible task of recycling blades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides the main boneyard\u2014behind Meyer\u2019s apartment\u2014stacks of blades also occupy ten acres a couple miles south of town, and the company is storing blades in other locations in the county. \u201cThey have, in my view, abandoned them there,\u201d said Samantha Morrow, the Nolan County attorney. \u201cThe county doesn\u2019t have and cannot find millions of dollars to clean this up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sweetwater piles are also at least partly the indirect result of a rule clarification the Internal Revenue Service issued in 2016. Before then, a wind farm could collect valuable federal tax credits for only its first ten years of operation. But the IRS determined that it would restart the clock on the credits if a wind farm \u201crepowered\u201d its turbines\u2014replacing most of their equipment with newer parts. So, despite the expected two-decade lifespan for turbine blades, wind farms across Texas and other states began replacing many that remained in good shape years early.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some paid Global Fiberglass to remove the older blades and haul them away. The company set up shop in an empty industrial facility in Sweetwater that was once an aluminum recycling plant, but Don Lilly, the managing director of Global Fiberglass, told me that only a handful of blades have ever been ground up there. He said the company was close to ramping up and would soon mill the blades into pieces the size of coarse sand. \u201cThe blade material is sold,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I can\u2019t go into that part yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweetwater has heard such pledges before. The county declared the stockpile a public nuisance a year ago. City attorney Jeff Allen said Sweetwater\u2019s local ordinances are aimed at overgrown lots, not turbine blades, leaving the city with limited legal options. He said he believes Global Fiberglass \u201cintended to be a viable business\u201d but at some point \u201cit just came off the rails.\u201d (Lilly disputes this and says the delays have come from ensuring \u201call systems were engineered.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wind industry claims Sweetwater benefits from the local wind farms nearby. Drivers arriving on I-20 from either direction are welcomed by a giant wind turbine blade painted with the town\u2019s name. But even the community\u2019s biggest boosters of renewable energy long ago ran out of patience with Global Fiberglass\u2019s mess. \u201cWe\u2019d like to see them gone,\u201d said Karen Hunt, director of the local chamber of commerce. \u201cThe sooner the better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sweetwater isn\u2019t the only place Global Fiberglass has stockpiled blades. It has a total of 1,300 in Newton, Iowa, and two other cities in that state, according to the state\u2019s Department of Natural Resources. After an investigation, the agency concluded in 2021 there was no recycling going on, nor was any likely to happen. It declared the company to be running an unpermitted dump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frank Liebl, executive director of the Newton Development Corporation, testified at a state hearing that the initial excitement in 2017 of recruiting a blade-recycling company soon soured. In the intervening years, he asked Global Fiberglass many times when it would begin its recycling. He always got \u201cthe same answer: \u2018Soon,\u2019\u200a\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By July 2021, the company owed more than $1 million in unpaid rent in Newton, according to testimony at the Iowa hearing from its landlord\u2019s attorney. In Texas, it failed to pay taxes to Nolan County in 2020 and is now three years in arrears, according to tax records. Last year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality fined the company $10,255 for what it described as illegally stored solid waste. It allowed the company to pay the penalty in monthly installments for three years. In June, Global Fiberglass defaulted, according to the commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Newton, pressure from the state of Iowa seems to have worked. Craig Armstrong, a city employee, said that General Electric recently acquired the blades. It\u2019s unclear whether GE purchased them from Global Fiberglass or from the landlord who was owed the $1 million in rent, who may have taken possession of the blades. The city was promised that they would be sent to a recycling center by the end of the year, although none had been removed by mid-August, according to a Newton city official.\u00a0Lilly declined to talk about the Iowa blades.
Texas Monthly<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From STOP THESE THINGS Across the USA, wind power outfits are being repeatedly busted for dumping their blades and simply cutting and running. Then there are scammers like Global Fiberglass Solutions Inc which makes claims about recycling dumped blades, notwithstanding there is no market for ground up toxic waste, funnily enough. Principal among the toxic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":281250,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691823136,691823140,691823138,691818080,691819168,691823139,691823137,691821763],"class_list":{"0":"post-281245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bisphenol-a","9":"tag-iowa","10":"tag-sweetwater","11":"tag-toxic","12":"tag-usa","13":"tag-washington-state","14":"tag-west-texas","15":"tag-wind-turbine-blades","17":"fallback-thumbnail"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/image-892.png?fit=2000%2C1499&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1bad","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":218233,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218233","url_meta":{"origin":281245,"position":0},"title":"New Sustainability Standard: Wind Industry Illegally Dumping Thousands of Turbine Blades","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"10\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"As hundreds of thousands of\u00a0toxic wind turbine blades\u00a0head for landfills near you, thousands more are being dumped illegally.","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=218233#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0Screenshot-2022-09-10-135230.png?fit=986%2C557&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":272759,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=272759","url_meta":{"origin":281245,"position":1},"title":"Blade Runners: Wind Industry Dumping Millions of Tonnes of Blades Every\u00a0Year","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"11\/08\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Hundreds of thousands of\u00a0toxic wind turbine blades\u00a0are headed for landfills near you, and thousands more are being dumped illegally, right next door. Across the USA, wind power outfits are being repeatedly busted for dumping their blades and simply cutting and running.","rel":"","context":"In \"Blade Runners\"","block_context":{"text":"Blade Runners","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=blade-runners"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-427.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-427.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-427.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-427.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/image-427.png?fit=1200%2C899&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":210825,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=210825","url_meta":{"origin":281245,"position":2},"title":"Planet Sized Problem: Millions More Wind Turbine Blades Destined for Landfills Near You","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"29\/07\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Mike Moore\u2019s\u00a0Planet of the Humans\u00a0exposed the mountains of toxic filth generated by so-called \u2018green\u2019 energy, much to the horror of renewable energy rent-seekers and climate cult zealots, alike. Solar panels are a veritable toxic cocktail of gallium arsenide, tellurium, silver, crystalline silicon, lead, cadmium, and heavy earth material. Then there\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/0goodell-turbines-1100x825-1.jpg?fit=1100%2C825&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":268654,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=268654","url_meta":{"origin":281245,"position":3},"title":"Will Wind Turbines Be Generating More Waste Than Electricity?","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"20\/07\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Because wind turbine blades are very difficult to recycle, the waste stream created by the retired blades is a mounting problem. Globally by 2050 projections are that there will be\u00a043 million tons of blade waste produced EVERY YEAR\u00a0\u2014 the equivalent of 215,000 locomotives.","rel":"","context":"In \"electricity\"","block_context":{"text":"electricity","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=electricity"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-626.png?fit=1024%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-626.png?fit=1024%2C500&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-626.png?fit=1024%2C500&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/image-626.png?fit=1024%2C500&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":429378,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=429378","url_meta":{"origin":281245,"position":4},"title":"Waste from \u201cclean energy\u201d piles up across the U.S.","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/03\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"In February, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u00a0announced\u00a0his office was suing Global Fiberglass Solutions, Inc. and all affiliated entities for allegedly \u201cdumping thousands of wind turbine blades and related materials at two disposal sites in Sweetwater, Texas,\u201d KTAB\/KRBC reported. The suit, filed on behalf of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"renewable \u201cgreen\u201d energy\"","block_context":{"text":"renewable \u201cgreen\u201d energy","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=renewable-green-energy"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Wind-Turbine-Graveyards1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Wind-Turbine-Graveyards1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Wind-Turbine-Graveyards1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-Wind-Turbine-Graveyards1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":217046,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=217046","url_meta":{"origin":281245,"position":5},"title":"Toxic Blade Time Bomb: New Study Exposes Scale of Wind Industry\u2019s Poisonous Plastics Legacy","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/09\/2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Landfills are the final destination for millions of worn-out wind turbine blades, where their toxic plastics will be left to rot for the \u2018benefit\u2019 of generations to come.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0HZNHcPyS.png?fit=1036%2C488&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0HZNHcPyS.png?fit=1036%2C488&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0HZNHcPyS.png?fit=1036%2C488&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/0HZNHcPyS.png?fit=1036%2C488&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":281252,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281245\/revisions\/281252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/281250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}