Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird on Thursday announced a lawsuit against Global Fiberglass Solutions (GFS) and its executives, Donald Lilly and Ronald Albrecht, for violations of Iowa’s solid waste laws. GFS failed to properly dispose of decommissioned wind turbine blades that were stockpiled at multiple locations across Iowa.
In 2017, GFS was contracted and paid millions of dollars by two major wind-turbine companies to cut up, transport, and recycle the blades. Instead, GFS let the approximately 1,300 blades sit in stockpiles for years between the three sites in Ellsworth, Newton, and Atlantic, Iowa. GFS failed to recycle the blades even after the Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued orders calling for cleanup.
In 2022, one of the wind-turbine companies disposed of the abandoned blades at the Ellsworth location. In June 2024, the other company completed clean up of the blades at both the Atlantic and Newton sites.
“GFS failed to do its job, and instead, dumped and abandoned 1,300 decommissioned wind turbine blades in stockpiles across the state,” said Attorney General Bird. “Despite efforts from my office and the DNR, GFS refused cleanup, allowing these blades to pose an environmental risk. We are taking action to hold them accountable.”
The lawsuit seeks civil penalties against GFS and its executives for their years-long failure to dispose of the decommissioned wind turbines.
Read the full lawsuit here.
Wow 1300 blades – guessing 400 plus wind machines either out of commission or received major overhaul. Maybe all the blades are not from what we see along I80 but they all are eyesores. Wondering how many years of useful life of such blades and the rest of the structure. How many blades per year to expect going forward given increase number of locations.