The Iowa Supreme Court says one of two executives for a Texas company can be held liable for used wind turbine blades that were stockpiled in the state and not recycled.
The Iowa DNR is seeking civil penalties and an injunction against Global Fiberglass Solutions after some 1,300 old blades had been stored in Newton (868 blades), Ellsworth (400 blades) and Atlantic (22 blades) with no action.
Company CEO Donald Lilly and director Ronald Albrecht said they live in Washington State and are not personally involved in disposing of the blades. The Supreme Court says Lilly personally signed documents from the DNR saying the company would take care of the blades. It says the state hasn’t shown that Albrecht signed any contracts to make him personally responsible in the case, and it dismissed him from the DNR action.
MidAmerican Energy and General Electric eventually disposed of the decommissioned blades that GFS failed to recycle.
(This story was updated to clarify the ruling on the resposibility of the two men.)