MECHANICSVILLE, Iowa (KCRG) – A Mechanicsville farm is facing its third wind turbine fire in less than a year and a half.

All three were caused by lightning strikes.

Now the owners of the farm are trying to figure out what to do next.

A Cedar County ordinance requires that wind turbines that no longer generate electricity must be dismantled within one year.

While the turbine owners have to take care of this, the responsibility for the damage left behind lies with the property owner.

After the wind turbine’s blade fell to the ground, debris from the turbine covered the surrounding farmland.

“I don’t really know how you’re ever going to clean this up, especially because the longer you wait, the harder it gets. And with so much still here, I don’t know what we’re going to do with it,” said Sally Freeman, the farm’s owner.

Freeman is now dealing with the third turbine fire and has learned from experience that the clean-up takes forever.

“We don’t have a real timetable yet, nor do we know exactly what method they plan to use to remove it,” Freeman said.

She also learned that the wind energy companies’ cleanup efforts are not perfect.

After the previous cleanup, Freeman’s cornfield was littered with wires and fiber optic cables, and the industrial equipment used to remove the last turbine still takes up space.

Because of the many fiberglass and waste in the field, she cannot use the land, and this loss costs a lot of money.

“When you consider the additional cost to us, the additional costs and the damage to our soil, I would say it’s in the millions,” Freeman said.

Days after the fire, the fallen rotor blade is still smoldering and parts of the structure are still being blown away by the wind.

Freeman fears the pieces of fiberglass could damage the farm’s equipment. She already knows she will no longer be able to sell corn from the affected area.

“Because of the storms that followed the fire and the fact that there were now two fires on the same turbine, three fires on the same field, there are probably at least 1,000 acres of land affected by those two turbines,” Freeman said.

Freeman said she was not against wind energy, but said legislation needed to be put in place to speed up the rehabilitation process.

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