August 9, 2024 — Nantucket’s Select Board got an update Wednesday night, Aug. 7, on the efforts to clean up debris from the failed Vineyard Wind turbine blade south of the island.
Roger Martella, the Chief Sustainability Officer for blade manufacturer GE Vernova, outlined the ongoing response to the mid-July incident that sent debris into the ocean about 15 miles south of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. That debris continues to wash up on local beaches.
“We’re going to be focusing on shellfish, we’re going to be focusing on marine life, long-term degradation of anything that might remain. The impact from physical contact, from chemicals, from micro particulates,” Martella said.
Martella said a small portion of the broken blade remains on the turbine, but the expected high winds over the next few days should not cause more of it to break off.
“The storm is not a risk for the turbines or blades or anything like that. Of that seven-to-eight-percent of the hanging part that is still there, there is a possibility that the 22 meters per second projected winds could impact that and then we would execute the recovery plans that we’ve been doing.”