Residents of a Texas town say they are being “tortured” by debilitating health problems brought on by the deafening hum of a local Bitcoin mine.
Some people living in rural Granbury, 40 miles from Fort Worth, have spoken of heart problems, ear fluid leaks and fainting related to the mine.
A five-year-old girl was even sent to the emergency room after experiencing extreme ear pain that she described as “a red flash behind the eardrums.”
Now, experts fear this grim scenario could be repeated in hundreds more rural towns across the US as Bitcoin mining operations expand.
The image above shows the Bitcoin mine (left) and the Texas town of Granbury (right) about an hour’s drive from Fort Worth. Locals say the noise is torturing them.
Pictured above, a local resident is seen with a journalist as they discuss the noise, which has been compared to that of a jet engine.
The map above shows the location of 50 of the 137 crypto mines in the United States. Authorities are beginning to study how much electricity they consume.
A Bitcoin mine is a massive facility equipped with tens of thousands of high-powered computers that sift through code to find lucrative Bitcoins.
The machines are stored on site in large metal boxes that look a bit like shipping containers. They generate heat which is counteracted by fans, which can be extremely noisy.
This noise can be as loud as 90 decibels (dB) in the surrounding neighborhood, which is equivalent to the continuous operation of a chainsaw, blender, or hair dryer.
The CDC says that being exposed to sounds at this level for more than two hours can cause permanent damage to the eardrums. He also says that for people to be able to sleep, noises should be below 30 dB, or about the sound of a whisper.
In addition to those in Texas, residents of Bono, Arkansas, and Williston, North Dakota, have also raised the alarm about the constant noise coming from their mine.
There are currently 137 Bitcoin mines in the US, an increase from before 2021 as factories move here from China, where they have been banned.
Cheryl Shadden, a neighbor of the Bitcoin mine, says it’s so loud she can’t even hear someone talking when they’re right next to her.
Pictured above are local residents during a protest over the Bitcoin mine. Local officials say they can only fine the mine for noise pollution.
The United States now accounts for 38 percent of global Bitcoin mining, up from three percent previously.
By 2030, mines are expected to use eight percent of all electricity in the United States, up from about two percent today.
In many cases, mines are built in areas with cheap electricity and few regulations, allowing them to make noise.
Attorney Mandy DeRoche of Earthjustice, who has campaigned against Bitcoin mines, said TIMEHistorically, Bitcoin miners look at the cheapest source of electricity with the least amount of regulation and do it as cheaply as possible.
“It’s one of the reasons why noise pollution from cryptocurrency mining tends to be much worse than that from traditionally operated data center operators.”
In Granbury, fines of $500 can be imposed for sounds over 85 dB, although local officials do not have the power to impose further penalties or shut down the mine.
Meanwhile, in Arkansas, officials have passed legislation to protect businesses from disgruntled neighbors.
And in Indiana and Missouri, lawmakers are also looking to allow cryptocurrency companies to be exempt from noise laws.
Doctors suggest that the noise created by the fans may cause many of the health complications described by residents of Granbury and other areas near Bitcoin mines.
They say the noise and the lack of sleep it causes can lead to increased stress and inflammation in the body, which in severe cases can cause complications like heart palpitations.
Loud, constant noises have also previously been linked to problems such as severe headaches and migraines, although the exact mechanism is unclear.
After the Granbury mine opened in the summer of 2022, residents retreated from their porches into their homes to escape the noise.
But they soon realized that it would reach all the way inside, and many found their windows shaking and their beds vibrating.
Wildlife, including rabbits, coyotes and birds, also fled the area, while domestic chickens stopped laying eggs and dogs began to suffer spasms.
So far, at least 40 residents have reported complaints they believe are due to noise from the Bitcoin mines, and at least ten have been taken to emergency care.
Among them was five-year-old Indigo Rosenkranz, who was rushed to the emergency room in early February 2023 screaming that she could feel a “red flash behind her eardrums.”
Her mother, Sarah, 43, also collapsed unexpectedly at home with a headache so severe it felt as if “my head was in a vise, crushed; it was worse than childbirth.”
In another case, 77-year-old Pastor Larry Potts said his heart stopped working in February this year after he went days and days without sleep. He was rushed to the hospital and kept alive by an external pacemaker.
Jackie Sawicky, who is campaigning to stop the mines with the Texas Coalition Against Crypto Mining, told DailyMail.com in a statement: ‘When China banned cryptocurrencies and crypto mining in September 2021, Governor Greg Abbot (of Texas) personally invited them to our state citing cheap energy and a deregulated market.
‘Texas is now number one in cryptocurrency mining and that has raised all of our bills, they are wasting precious water, they are destabilizing the grid and they are torturing locals like the (Granbury community).
‘There are no redeeming factors for the Bitcoin proof of waste industry. There is NO justification for wasting the country’s wealth in this manner.’
She is campaigning for a Bitcoin facility being built near her home in Corsicana, Texas, which will be the largest in the world when completed.
The Granbury mine is owned by Las Vegas-based Marathon Digital Holdings, which operates approximately 240,000 bitcoin mining machines. Its annual revenue is about $500 million per year.
They say they are working to replace the fans with on-site immersion technology, which would involve throwing the computers into oil to keep them cool.
A 20,000-foot-long wall was built around the site last year, although this has done little to alleviate noise pollution.