Consultants analyzing the environmental impact of the broken Vineyard Wind turbine blade have reported that the debris from the damage is not toxic and the greatest danger is to Nantucket beachgoers. The report also found that some turbine pieces have minimal amounts of Teflon.
Arcadis US, an engineering and environmental consultancy firm hired by GE Vernova, released an initial environmental assessment on Tuesday night over the Vineyard Wind turbine blade that fractured on July 13.
The report did not reveal the cause behind the turbine blade’s breakage, but top officials from GE Vernova, the company that manufactures and installs Vineyard Wind’s turbines, suspect it may have been caused by a manufacturing issue at a blade factory in Gaspé, Canada. GE Vernova is still conducting a root cause analysis. The company is also working with maritime response and recovery firm Resolve Marine — in coordination with Vineyard Wind and federal and local officials — to detach the remaining blade segment on the turbine.
Vineyard Wind has been temporarily shutdown by federal officials while they investigate the incident. The company also intends to retrieve debris that sank in the water, although a plan has not been publicly released yet.
According to the Arcadis report, the primary concern from the damaged blade is “injury to people who may physically contact the blade debris,” such as fiberglass shards on public beaches and shorelines. The report found the debris to be “inert, non-soluble, stable, and non-toxic” and is similar to textiles and materials used in boat construction and the aviation industry.
The 107-meter long, 52,000-kg blade was made in a Gaspé, Canada manufacturing facility. The report states 33 different materials are used to produce a turbine blade, and over 60 percent of the blade’s weight consists of “glass fiber and polyester resin composite.”
“Further evaluations will consider the potential for degradation of the residual blade materials that remain in the environment and potential exposure routes and other fate and transport mechanisms,” the report reads.
While no PFAS was used in manufacturing the blade itself or in the foam, fiberglass, wood or coating, there are multiple “small Aerodynamic add-ons” near the root end of the blade’s exterior portion containing Teflon. Teflon is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for food, potable water, and pharmaceutical products, and the Arcadis report finds that the PFAS content in the “aerodynamic add-ons account for 0.00005 percent of the total weight of the blade.”
The report also states that the blade is made of “non-hazardous” materials that can be disposed of in a landfill, similar to a 2018 “retired blade” at the facility of rotor blade supplier LM Wind Power — a subsidiary of GE Vernova.
Arcadis stated the recovery of debris and public status updates should continue. The consultants also wrote that, moving forward, officials should make a detailed inventory of the collected debris, and the materials should be tested further.
Wow the environmental impact non-toxic, how disgusting, anyone who works with fiberglass, has to wear a special respirator and hazmat protection on clothing, highly irritating to skin, when work is done on boats in shipyards, it needs to be vacuumed up and disposed of properly, because these particles are HAZARDOUS. The turbine blade is 350 feet long, that would equate to 34 fiberglass boats at 20 feet in length, if smashed into pieces as this blade was , you obviously have an environmental catastrophe. Why are we not making this in America, by the people of America. Just another foreign country getting a handout from the Biden Harris green new scam
How many sunk 20 foot fiberglass boats are in the area’s waters?
Gallons of fuel on board when they went down?
Turbine blades are as dangerous Corvette bodies.
These are being made in Canada because no American company bid on them.
The planning for Vineyard Wind was done under Trump.
Suzie, would an environmental catastrophe be where the night time temperatures are about 20 degrees above what they were just a few years ago? And, sadly, night time temperatures not dropping is an important measure for humans being able to cool down in a 24-hour period.
WOW! Thank you for squashing my concerns. I was worried about 351 foot long , 114,000 POUNDS of fiberglass, synthetic foam, two part solvent epoxy resin, the entire south side of Nantucket beaches closed for days, bulldozers, tractors, trucks, quads, DPW workers, lifeguards, volunteers, dozens of boats, government employees, residents being told to STAY out of the water all to fix a seriously dangerous and expensive….. mistake.
There seems to be an attempt to minimize the environmental damage and long term health of the marine life that are now exposed to tons of debris in their increasingly hazardous home. BUT, after reading your article mostly informed by the “contractor” hired by the plaintiff I mean the contractor, doing the bidding of Avangrid I now see there is nothing to worry about.
I am sorry Dear Leader !
What a ludicrous report. First it was non toxic, now it has pfas. But they use the overall weight of the blade to make it sound like a tiny amount. We agonized on the island for years about an almost immeasurable amount of pfas in some turf. Where are all you pfas scare tactic people now. Crickets. It’s all good when you like the project and the most toxic substance on the planet when you don’t. Come on Times. Make an attempt to be consistent.
Patti–Do you know what makes all those old non stick
pots and pans resistant to food sticking to them ?
I say old because the United States finally banned the
use of Teflon in cookware in 2014. Yes, they came after your frying
pan, and nobody even noticed.
How did Tucker Carlson miss that one ?
So just about all non stick cookware manufactured between
1950 and 2014 has Teflon right there in contact with your
eggs and hamburgers. I was born in 1952, and virtually
every pot and pan my mother used to cook all my meals had Teflon
surfaces.
It’s still on lots of clothing and other products that we come
in contact with every day.
That tiny amount is about a half pound by the way.
“the most toxic substance on the planet”
Nuclear disgorgement, Plymouth, MA.
Albert, thank you for helping us keep this incident in perspective.
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