Md. needs to learn from recent mishap
Editor,
Raise your hand if you are aware of the environmental disaster that started on July 13 off the coast of Nantucket?
For those who don’t know, a 300-foot long blade broke off a turbine in the Vineyard Wind project located between Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard. This project is less than one year old, and this particular turbine’s construction had just been completed. In fact, the incident happened during the testing phase.
What did this accident teach us? . .. that nothing about offshore wind turbine power plants is “green” or “clean.” In fact, now we know these turbine blades are made of metal and fiberglass-reinforced polyester or epoxy. Carbon fiber or aramid (Kevlar) is also used as reinforcement material. These are materials that will never dissipate or biodegrade. But it’s worse than that – the pieces of the blade (thousands of shards) are in the ocean and will be eaten by whales, turtles and fish. And it is deadly.
What else did we learn? Something a few of us already knew: these companies have one mission – to extract as much money as possible from the American people with no regard for our safety, environment or livelihoods. This is highlighted by the fact that the developer did not inform any authority until Captain Carl Bois, who was tuna fishing at the time, reported debris in the water.
Capt. Bois then had to alert the authorities 48 hours after the disaster, while toxic, dangerous, sharp (many huge) pieces of the blade floated in the water and washed up on the beach on Nantucket’s southern coast. Further, it took another 24 hours to deploy a clean up crew. By that time, the residents and lifeguards of Nantucket were trying to clean up the mess. The developer, Vineyard Wind, never bothered to tell anyone on Martha’s Vineyard, or the Cape, and they started finding debris there as well. You can find all the details in nantucketcurrent.com. Capt. Bois’ article is dated July 18..
The turbine blade began disintegrating on the evening of July 13 and sent some 17 cubic yards of debris into the ocean. The owners of the Vineyard Wind project did not notify Nantucket officials until Monday, July 15 at about 5 p.m.
The beaches were closed due to the hazardous conditions.
A few days ago, the rest of the blade (all 300 feet) fell into the ocean and is now lying on the seafloor.
Raise your hand again if you were aware of this event from any of our local news sources – television, print, radio (other than WGMD).
Raise your hand again if you think this is pretty important information locals should have since there is a wind farm planned for 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City.
Frankly, I find it alarming that the only place I have seen local coverage of this disaster is on social media, particularly Facebook pages concerning offshore wind and its dangers. I know of at least one person who contacted a local television station to ask if it would be covered and was told it’s too far away to affect us.
It would seem to me that the residents who live here and whose tax money is substantially funding the Ocean Wind project 10 miles off the coast of Ocean City should certainly be informed, since there’s a good chance this would happen here, too. It’s probably even more likely here since the developer of the Ocean Wind project, US Wind (an Italian company), is a novice, having never built an offshore wind farm. Yes, our state and federal governments have turned us into guinea pigs.
If you want real, truthful information about the dangers of offshore wind, a great source is actually Facebook. Check out Protect our Coast-Delmarva and other pages to find out what every citizen needs to know. Additionally, go to green-oceans.org/, save-the-east-coast.org/, protectourcoastnj.com/, and keep your eyes out for saveoceancity.com/ where very shortly you will be able to find information on all things offshore wind and how it will affect Maryland and in addition, what Ocean City will do to fight the project.
Carol Frazier
Ocean Pines