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‘Wind turbine’s on fire again’: Farmers in Iowa say they can’t get company to clean up blade debris
Just the News ^ | October 14, 2024 12:01am | Kevin Killough

Posted on 10/14/2024 4:04:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

Wind turbine blades continue to cause pollution problems for the people living around them. A farm in eastern Iowa has dust and debris from shattered wind turbine blades spread out over 240 acres, and they say the wind farm owner won’t clean it up.

Steve and Teresa Weets, according to The Gazette, agreed in 2012 to an easement allowing Acciona Wind Power to install two turbines on their family farm near Mechanicsville, Iowa. Both turbines have been struck by lightning – one of them twice – over the past 18 months.

The last time it happened was on Aug. 15, and a neighbor called the family early in the morning to say “Your wind turbine’s on fire again.”

Now that the harvest is underway, the debris is hurting the family’s agricultural business. As the blade debris becomes more embedded in the topsoil, the family worries it will contaminate their corn.

After landowners waited months, Acciona removed one of the foundations, a company spokesperson told The Gazette, and they’re talking with landowners to determine the best way to remove the second foundation. The also spokesperson the process is complicated because the foundations of wind towers are made of concrete and steel.

The family has requested that the company use a crane rather than explosives to remove the second tower because explosives might scatter even more debris over the farm. The company has said a crane isn’t safe.

Cedar County, where Mechanicsville is located, requires a decommissioning bond, but that doesn’t cover cleanup efforts.

(Excerpt) Read more at justthenews.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
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So many unintended consequences of "green" energy.
1 posted on 10/14/2024 4:04:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Did the farmer say , wind turbines great idea put them up ?


2 posted on 10/14/2024 4:07:18 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

3 posted on 10/14/2024 4:11:24 PM PDT by MacNaughton
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To: E. Pluribus Unum; All

They looked OK in the Summer of 2022...not so much now.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/5yWKppCgYChZTP5cA

https://imengine.public.prod.cdr.navigacloud.com/?uuid=63bf516a-9d75-5310-8fbe-7afc339740ed&type=preview&q=60&function=fit&maxsize=1200


4 posted on 10/14/2024 4:12:21 PM PDT by Drago
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To: butlerweave

Ya they did. 6 to 7 thousand bucks a year lease payment to the farmers for each one.


5 posted on 10/14/2024 4:33:11 PM PDT by crz
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Wind Turbines use a lot of oil for lubrication and under them is a house sized concrete and steel foundation , don’t sound very green but green means Scam now


6 posted on 10/14/2024 4:51:40 PM PDT by butlerweave
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

“Cedar County, where Mechanicsville is located, requires a decommissioning bond, but that doesn’t cover cleanup efforts.”

Idiocy or corruption on the part of the County Board.

L


7 posted on 10/14/2024 4:55:27 PM PDT by Lurker ( Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Wind turbine’s on fire

The wind turbine's what?

8 posted on 10/14/2024 5:16:20 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: butlerweave

They razzle dazzle them with promises of big monthly payout for using the land. Not thinking about long term. Or expecting a fly by night government rich company to be around later on. Sad really.


9 posted on 10/14/2024 5:57:22 PM PDT by vpintheak (Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug. )
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
From the article above:
"As the [wind turbine] blade debris becomes more embedded in the topsoil, the family worries it will contaminate their corn."

From another article, Hurricane Milton Exposes Green New Deal’s Fragility: Costly Solar Panels Destroyed in Florida, Leaving Thousands in the Dark [10/14/2024]:

The 380-acre Lake Placid Solar Power Plant, was meant to symbolize the future of energy, but after Hurricane Milton’s landfall, it now stands as a symbol of the failures of environmental utopianism.

The 45-megawatt (MW) plant consists of approximately 180,000 tracking solar panels.

This solar facility, touted for its ability to power over 12,000 homes at peak production, was ravaged by the storm’s extreme conditions.


10 posted on 10/14/2024 6:08:23 PM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: Jeff Chandler

Whose hoos who’s??


11 posted on 10/14/2024 6:32:22 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

You’re your yore!!!


12 posted on 10/14/2024 6:33:11 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: fishtank

Ewe yew you.


13 posted on 10/14/2024 6:34:43 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

I eye aye.


14 posted on 10/14/2024 6:35:23 PM PDT by fishtank (The denial of original sin is the root of liberalism.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Yeah, I never considered this particular disadvantage of a wind turbine, but their structure makes them a dandy lightning rod.


15 posted on 10/14/2024 8:10:08 PM PDT by oldtech
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

500 ton steel and concrete foundations x 1 million windmills is a lot of junk underground. I’m sure all these operating companies have posted surety bonds to remediate the sites when these monstrosities die of old age in 20 years (if that).

We are going to have the biggest environmental remediation project the country has ever seen when these things reach the ends of their lives. Billions of dollars to clean up the sites when all the operators are broke and out of business. Guess who is going to pay?


16 posted on 10/14/2024 8:31:02 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (It should be illegal to be here illegally. It should be a crime to be committing crimes in the USA.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

Three 70-ton blades leaving burnt tiny glass fibers all over your beautiful topsoil How the hell can you even clean that up? Scrape up and dispose of a couple feet of topsoil over 300 acres?


17 posted on 10/14/2024 8:32:36 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (It should be illegal to be here illegally. It should be a crime to be committing crimes in the USA.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

My understanding is that the farmer is paid $4K/mo foŕ each turbine on their property.

Iowa has a LOT of wind farms.

Reed Timmer video taped a tornado shattering one or two turbines this year. It made quite the mess.


18 posted on 10/15/2024 12:49:38 AM PDT by PrairieLady2 (USA: Land of the free, Because of the Brave.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

THE TROPICANA RESORT WAS ALSO MADE OF CONCRETE & STEEL.

WHO ARE THEY KIDDING????


19 posted on 10/15/2024 4:04:56 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: MacNaughton

What is the carbon footprint of that?


20 posted on 10/15/2024 5:55:42 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
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