DES MOINES, Iowa — The state of Iowa has filed a lawsuit against Global Fiberglass Solutions, based in Washington state, and its top executives for the alleged improper disposal of numerous decommissioned wind-turbine blades. According to the state, the company broke Iowa’s solid-waste laws by dumping the large blades at various unauthorized sites across the state.
The legal action, initiated in the Iowa District Court for Jasper County, targets not only Global Fiberglass Solutions but also its CEO Donald Lilly and Ronald Albrecht, one of the company’s corporate officers. Efforts to reach the defendants for comments have been unsuccessful.
Since 2017, when Global Fiberglass Solutions was reportedly contracted by General Electric and MidAmerican Energy to recycle old wind-turbine blades, the company has instead dumped approximately 1,300 blades. These blades, typically each 170 feet long and weighing about 16 tons, have been left at four different locations around Iowa—Newton, Atlantic, and a site in Ellsworth used also for blades initially disposed of in Fort Dodge.
At the peak of the issue, the lawsuit specifies, there were 868 blades piled in a former factory parking lot in Newton and 400 left lying directly on the ground in a field in Ellsworth. In Atlantic, another 22 blades were discarded similarly in a field.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources started receiving complaints about the Newton site in 2018, and in 2020, they issued a violation notice to Global Fiberglass Solutions for their activities in Fort Dodge and Newton, signaling non-compliance with the claimed recycling operations. This was later followed by another notice for the Ellsworth site.
By the end of 2020, the company had agreed to a consent order requiring them to undertake substantial measures to start recycling the blades, including the installation of necessary recycling equipment. They were also obliged to post a $2 million surety bond aimed at covering state expenses in case removal of the blades was needed due to non-compliance. However, the company failed to post the bond by the April 1, 2021 deadline.
When Global Fiberglass Solutions did not comply with the order to halt blade accumulation and clear out existing sites, the matter was escalated to the Iowa attorney general’s office. Now, three years later, the lawsuit is seeking civil penalties potentially amounting to $5,000 per day for each violation of the state’s solid-waste regulations.
Meanwhile, MidAmerican and General Electric have reportedly begun to address the disposed blades, with the former having cleared the Ellsworth site and the latter recently removing blades from Newton and Atlantic.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, expressing her stance on the case, labeled the situation as an abandonment of 1,300 blades around the state by Global and its leadership. “We are taking action to hold them accountable,” Bird stated in a press release, emphasizing the gravity of the environmental and legal violations alleged in the lawsuit.
This lawsuit highlights a growing concern over the responsible disposal of wind turbine components, a critical issue as renewable energy infrastructure ages and requires decommissioning.