Minnesota town fighting for years to remove abandoned windmill blades finally sees results
(ABC 6 News) – After four years of trying to get a pile of wind turbine blades on the edge of town removed, the city of Grand Meadow is finally getting its wish with the help of the state Public Utilities Commission.
The whole problem started when the turbines blades were left behind by an energy company, NextEra, that owned the blades when they decommissioned them back in 2020.
City administrator, James Christian, said the community had no warning the blades were going to be dropped off on the site.
“We knew they were re-powering the turbines south of town,” Christian said. “We knew that was happening, we’d seen all the blades cut up on site. Never questioned that they would end up here, but here we are.”
The city was told the blades would only be around for a couple months.
That was in 2020, and the blades have been a thorn in the city’s side every since.
“The community hates it,” Christian said. “I’ve not heard one person in this town that is for those blades sitting there.”
Over the years, Christian and the city have been fighting to get the blades removed. Multiple companies had been brought on to recycle the blades to no avail.
Finally, just in the last couple of months, Christian got in contact with the Public Utilities Commission, which held a hearing last week to resolve the issue.
During the hearing, NextEra was ordered by the commission to get to work on cleaning up the mess which it agreed to.
The commission gave the company until October 5 to start the removal process and until December 15 to be finished.
“It’s good to have at least an end date,” said Christian. “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”