In February, a drone took off from one side of the Clinch River next to The Preserve, the fastest-growing housing development in Oak Ridge, located at its extreme western end in Roane County. The drone soared across the river and flew back and forth over the approximately 375-acre site owned by Powerhouse Land LLC.
The drone was flown by a contractor for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Division of Solid Waste Management. The agency’s job in this case is to make sure Carbon Rivers is complying with the regulations of TDEC, the chief environmental natural resource agency in the state.
Jeremy Hooper of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s Division of Solid Waste Management spoke about Carbon Rivers’ compliance challenges to the first-ever joint meeting of the city of Oak Ridge’s Environmental Quality Advisory Board and the Roane County Environmental Review Board, held in March 2025.
Residents of The Preserve have complained about occasional irritating noises coming from the grinding and shredding of the blades. They have expressed concerns of potential health hazards. They want protection for the wetland adjacent to the Carbon Rivers site.
In speaking about the company, the names Powerhouse Land and Carbon Rivers are often used interchangeably. Attorney Sarah Johnson explained to The Oak Ridger that her clients are basically the same company, but Powerhouse Land LLC owns the property and Carbon Rivers Inc. is operating on the land.
At the first joint meeting of the city of Oak Ridge’s Environmental Quality Advisory Board and the Roane County Environmental Review Board on March 6, Jeremy Hooper of TDEC’s Division of Solid Waste Management explained that the drone flew over the sites in Oak Ridge and off Western Avenue in Knoxville to determine the amount of material stored at both sites.
The drone used light detection and ranging technology, which can scan large volumes of material and rapidly collect precise three-dimensional data. The system measures the time it takes for each rapid pulse of laser light to travel to a surface – or below the surface where there are voids in a stack of blades – and returns. The result is a detailed 3D representation of the scanned environment. The measured volume is then converted to tons.
Hooper told the group that Carbon Rivers was informed by letter that its compliance would be evaluated.
He also said TDEC’s Division of Air Pollution Controls found insignificant activity and, as a result, Powerhouse Land’s site in Oak Ridge is exempt from air permitting. However, the department’s Division of Water Resources does have oversight over the company through a storm water permit.
But the Division of Solid Waste Management, he added, plans to continue monitoring the company at least quarterly if not more frequently because it has been out of compliance with TDEC regulations in the past. Furthermore, the state directed Carbon Rivers to move chopped-up wind turbine blades to reduce the amount of material onsite.
Hooper explained each of the Carbon Rivers’ sites is classified by TDEC as a Recovered Materials Processing Facility, a facility solely engaged in the storage, processing and resale or reuse of recovered materials. Its acronym RMPF is pronounced Rumpuff by TDEC employees.
He said the company was given a permit exemption because its stored material is not considered a solid waste. Carbon Rivers must continue to meet roughly 10 conditions to qualify as a RMPF, he added.
Hooper said that when Carbon Rivers registered as a RMPF, the company estimated it had not exceeded the 7,770-ton limit for wind turbine blades and other material at its two sites.
“A condition of their registration since they are permit-exempt is that they cannot go over that amount, and a connected condition is that the amount of material is tied to a financial assurance instrument, called a performance bond, which is $750,000 with an inflation adjustment,” he added. To acquire this performance bond, Carbon Rivers agreed to pay the bond provider, or surety, a small percentage of the total bond amount.
The purpose of this bond, he explained, is to ensure that sufficient funds are available to TDEC to properly manage and dispose of the abandoned blades and other material, in case the company moves away, goes out of business or otherwise fails to meet its obligations. To protect the environment, TDEC would use the bond to cover the costs of cutting the blades to an appropriate size for disposal, loading the material onto trucks, driving them to the landfill, and paying the landfill disposal fees.
The LIDAR data from the February drone flight over the two Carbon Rivers sites indicates that the Oak Ridge site has 7,016 tons of blades and shredded material and the Knoxville site has 689 tons.
Earlier this year, Hooper said, TDEC officials cited Carbon Rivers for allowing some of its shredded material to migrate toward the Clinch River.
“It was not in the river, but it was getting out of their operational area,” he noted. “They did fix that. We told them to contain the operational area where they were shredding.
“We said to them we understand that from time to time some stuff will get blown around, but we want that to be minimal. We told them we want you to have folks go around and pick up the shredded material off-site, so that it doesn’t get out of control.”
If Carbon Rivers has more material on-site than allowed, Hooper said TDEC would declare it out of compliance.
“We would have two options in our response to Carbon Rivers,” he noted. “We would tell them to reduce the amount of material onsite or increase the financial assurance amount.”
Hooper said if Carbon Rivers were found to be out of compliance, the company could lose its permit exemption and be fined.
“We will continue to conduct recurring compliance inspections to ensure that they are in compliance with the conditions,” he added. And, if needed, a drone equipped with LIDAR technology could be used again.
This article originally appeared on Oakridger: TDEC monitors operations of wind turbine recycling operation in city