Wind Turbine Workers, Responders Put Safety First

There’s no reason to throw caution to the wind with safety as construction begins on the Upstream Wind Energy Center, the 81-turbine farm north of Neligh.

In fact, it’s quite the opposite as was proven last Tuesday when members of the construction management team met with more than a dozen area agencies and about 60 first responders to discuss potential emergency situations.

Held at the Neligh Fire Hall, First Captain Jason Krebs said the Neligh Fire Department has been in contact with their turbine contractors during last year and both agreed that when it came time, they would have a meeting to become familiar with one another. The meeting also helped educate local responders of the wind turbine safety procedures.

“It was really to have common ground knowledge of how they operate and for them to have common ground knowledge of how we operate,” Krebs said of the meeting. “In the event there is an incident, they know what they can expect out of us, and we know what to expect out of them.”

Krebs said with scale of the operation and amount of people on the ground, it was extremely important all of the emergency personnel were available — EMS, fire departments, jaws of life, dispatchers and law enforcement. Nine neighboring communities were also invited — Brunswick, Plainview, Pierce, Tilden, Oakdale, Elgin, Clearwater, Orchard and Royal.

Marlin Conroy, site construction manager, said the meeting April 3 was perfect timing since the project broke ground on the site the day before. The idea, he said, was to open the lines of communication before an emergency occurred to ensure everyone is proactive and prepared.

“We don’t do this on every job, but we’re trying to make it happen more and more,” Conroy said of meeting with local agencies. “We did it on Prairie Breeze II and III. It’s also good dialogue between departments to know who’s in charge. Some of it is facilitating and getting everyone together.”

The hour-long meeting was led by Conry and Jeremy Johnson, site safety manager for the Upstream project. They discussed procedures, equipment and how local first responders would be utilized in various emergency situations.

Dialogue ensued with dispatchers on situations and locations. Steve Simonsen, a Neligh EMT, inquired about the type of injuries they could be called to assist on since the project has its own safety response team.

Johnson said while the crew is well versed in safety, there is still a risk of injury. Among the potential calls for assistance would be heart attacks, pinch injuries leading to uncontrollable bleeding, cranes falling and crushed limbs.

After the safety meeting, dialogue continued among the various first responders about potential situations and how they would handle them.

“We achieved what we wanted to achieve.We wanted to get all agencies in one room. We all hear the same message and are all on the same page. That’s the biggest thing,” Krebs said. “We have to be on some page to form a collaborative effort if there is an incident. We know how to react and know what to expect from one another.”

Conry said the Upstream Wind Energy Center is expected to be commercially operational by the end of 2018. After the meeting, Krebs said the dialogue was beneficial for all agencies involved.

“Now we hope we never see each other again,” Krebs said with a smile. “But in the event that we do, we’re ready to go and know what to expect.”

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