Officials in Nantucket may be headed to court with Vineyard Wind after a blade from a damaged wind turbine plunged into the waters off the Massachusetts island and scattered debris on its shores.
The Nantucket Select Board will meet in executive session on Tuesday afternoon to “to discuss strategy with respect to potential litigation in connection with Vineyard Wind,” according to a notice posted to the town’s website.
The panel also is slated to discuss “the town’s litigation strategy relative to potential litigation for recovery costs, where an open meeting may have a detrimental effect on the litigating position of the Select Board/County Commissioners and the chair so declares.”
The board is slated to meet in public session on Wednesday to further discuss the matter, according to a posting to the town’s website.
Vineyard Wind, which is building the 62-turbine wind farm, publicly disclosed the damage to the turbine on Monday, two days after it was damaged, as fiberglass foam debris began washing up on the southern shores of Nantucket, MassLive previously reported.
Vineyard Wind has not said what caused the damage, but nobody was injured in the incident.
Initially, the broken portion of the 107-meter blade was hanging down from where it was still attached, on Wednesday night, Vineyard Wind said its condition was deteriorating and it would likely fall soon, which occurred the following morning.
By Friday, it had sunk to the ocean floor, MassLive previously reported.
In an update posted to the Nantucket town website on Friday morning, officials said the fiberglass piece of the blade that detached from the turbine had sunk and would be “recovered in due course.”
“Approximately half of the fiberglass shell of the blade remains attached, while most of the foam fill dislodged during the initial failure last Saturday,” according to the town website. “Monitoring of the remaining attached piece is ongoing, and a plan is being developed for its removal.”
As of Thursday, 56 people were working to clean up debris from the beaches and water, according to the town. Vineyard Wind is using models from the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to predict where debris will travel. The debris was expected to stay south of the island Friday, due to wind from the north.
Beaches on the southern shore of Nantucket were closed to swimming Tuesday because of the debris but have since reopened. The town said Friday the cleanup teams would also patrol the northern side of the island to ensure the area is ready for the Nantucket Triathlon, scheduled for Saturday.
Vineyard Wind is also developing a plan to conduct water testing around the island.
The company has said the debris is non-toxic but urged anyone who finds pieces of the debris to report them rather than touch or remove them themselves.
