Claims Process Being Formed For Economic Losses Due To Vineyard Wind Blade Failure

A litigation support services firm hired by the Select Board to manage the so-called "Community Claims Fund” established as part of a settlement between the town of Nantucket and offshore wind turbine blade manufacturer GE Vernova presented its plan on Wednesday to process applications and distribute money from the fund.

GE Vernova agreed to pay the town $10.5 million in the settlement reached last July. After fee payments to the firm, named Verus, and the town’s legal counsel, roughly $8.5 million will remain to be distributed through the claims fund to individuals and businesses that suffered losses as a result of the July 2024 Vineyard Wind blade failure, which scattered debris across Nantucket's south shore and closed beaches at the height of summer.

It is not yet clear when Verus will begin accepting applications for claims. At Wednesday’s Select Board meeting, Verus founder and chief strategy officer Mark Eveland said that the legal notice that will launch the application process has not yet been finalized.

“[Verus’s] goal is to fairly and adequately compensate as many claimants as possible consistent with established losses and the available settlement funds,” a draft of the legal notice included in the Select Board’s agenda packet reads in part.

Once the application process opens, it could take up to 18 months for claimants to receive funding, though roughly four months are set aside to ensure that any paper checks requested by claimants are received and cleared.

“We expect most claimants will want payment electronically,” Eveland said. “Those clear very quickly.”

The Community Claims Fund is being established to provide financial compensation for economic harm caused by the failure of the 300-foot-long Haliade-X turbine blade that collapsed into the water southwest of Nantucket last summer. Verus is set to administer the fund as a neutral third party, overseeing every facet of the application and distribution process.

If valid requests for reimbursement exceed the available funding, Eveland said that each request will be fulfilled proportionally, with no special regard for certain applications.

“If the total value of the allowed claims exceeds the available funds, each claimant would recieve a proportional share, relative to the total value of all the allowed claims,” he said.

To validate requests, Verus will rely on supporting documentation from applicants to prove a loss of profit resulting from the blade failure, though Eveland said that the documentation submitted can vary from business to business.

“We recognize the varying levels of sophistication in terms of record-keeping that we need to be prepared for,” he said.

The first step of the process is intake. From the date that the official legal notice is published, islanders who faced economic harm from the blade failure will have six months to submit their applications for reimbursement. There will be a designated website with a claim portal for applications, with a claim form that can be signed electronically.

Verus will then spend two months reviewing the claims and allow for another two months for applicants to remedy any deficiencies in their application before reviewing the amended applications, quantifying the value of each application, and informing applicants of the amount they will receive.

If applicants disagree with Verus’s decision, there will be an appeals period. Eveland said that if appeals are filed, Verus will likely retain a separate arbitrator so that it is not ruling on the validity of its own decisions.

Verus and the Select Board both clarified that the intention is for applications for reimbursement to remain anonymous.

“Confidentiality was baked into this,” said Select Board member Brooke Mohr, who has taken the lead on the Board’s offshore wind efforts. “The intention was to keep the names confidential.”

But there is still some uncertainty about whether applications could be subject to a public records request under the Freedom of Information Act.

“We do have to be concerned what happens if someone makes a public records request,” Town Counsel George Pucci said.

To receive funding, applicants will have to sign a release form guaranteeing that they will not later sue GE Vernova and its subsidiaries for damages stemming from the blade failure.