- Locals living near the Marathon Digital Holdings plant in Granbury, Texas, have spoken of their outrage due to the constant noise coming form a crypto mine
- Neighbor Cheryl Shadden described the noise as jets taking off and said locals are suffering from various ailments due to the noise
- Vast amounts of electricity are needed to run computers that create the crypto-currency, with large fans needed to keep those computers cool
Residents of a Texas town have said they are being left suffering from headaches, hearing loss and vertigo after a cryptocurrency mine opened nearby.
Those living in close proximity to the Marathon Digital Holdings plant in Granbury have said action is needed to cut down the noise pollution.
Vast amounts of electricity are needed to run computers that create the crypto-currency and the noise generated has driven neighbors to despair.
Neighbor Cheryl Shadden told NBC 5 that she has been bombarded by the noise from the plant for the last two years.
Speaking to the outlet, Shadden said: ‘It sounds like you’re being on a runway with jets taking off 24/7, nonstop. You hear it in your home, it penetrates the walls, it shakes your windows.’
Shadden added: ‘Almost all of us have headaches, hearing loss, vertigo, nausea, sleep disturbances. It’s like being a prisoner and having interrogation tactics plied upon you.
‘Having a radio on doesn’t help, having sleep sounds on doesn’t help. None of us can sleep at night.’
On Wednesday, others living in the area protested their concerns and held signs outside the facility, with one reading ‘bitcoin isn’t going to fix the grid’.
Nanette Samuelson, county commissioner for precinct two, shared reports that her office had received since last March with the outlet.
According to Samuelson, action in the county can only be taken when the sound produced by the plant is over 85 decibels.
Jackie Sawicky, founder of the Texas Coalition Against Cryptomining, said: ‘hey’re extraordinarily exploitative. They come to places like rural Texas where it’s almost no holds barred.’
In response, the company said: ‘Marathon Digital Holdings deeply values our relationships with the communities in which we live and work, and we appreciate the candid input that has been shared with us in recent weeks.
‘Long term, we look forward to fostering a positive, mutually beneficial relationship with our neighbors.’
The statement continued: ‘Prior to the purchase and taking on operation, the company was not aware of the noise issues.
‘Now that we operate the site and have team members on-site, we are working to gather information and address the situation.
We’ve been in close communication with Hood County residents and officials to learn more about this matter.
‘We have also commissioned a third party to conduct a sound study, which we hope will give us more information to remediate any impacts experienced by nearby residents.’
In December of last year, residents of a Pennsylvania town spoke of similar issues after being kept awake by a local bitcoin mine.
Locals said the walls inside their home were vibrating due to the nearby Terawulf facility in Salem Township and addressed it with the head of the facility.
Ernest Ashbridge III, vice president of Salem Township board of supervisors, told a local panel: ‘The gentleman that’s house is the last house on Confers Lane, you could literally go inside his house, put your hand on the wall, and feel the vibration from the fans, it was that bad.’
‘It’s terrible. The droning, you can’t sleep at night, it wakes you,’ said Stephen Bodnar who lives about a mile away from the operation.
‘I have a little pond in front of my house where I used to sit and have my coffee at,’ he added.
‘I can’t even enjoy that because I can’t even hear the water over the Bitcoin. It is louder than the waterfall.’
Earlier last year, residents of an Appalachian town said they had been forced to leave their homes due to a crypto mine.
The facility in Murphy, one of two in Cherokee County, has consistently made a sound that resident Mike Lugiewicz describes as ‘a small jet that never leaves’.
Sound meters run by Lugiewicz out of his yard showed the ceaseless noise of the stacks of computer servers and cooling fans scoring from 55 to 85 decibels.
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