Photo credit: RDNE Stock project
by Arline L. Bronzaft, Ph.D., Board of Directors, GrowNYC, Co-founder, The Quiet Coalition, and Honorary Chair, Quiet American Skies
Many people move to rural areas to escape noise, only to discover that noise soon finds them. Texas resident Tom Weeks did not expect to live near a crypto-mining facility, located near his Hood County community. This facility came with continuous noise that disrupted his life all day long, as reported in CBS News Texas
As we have written about repeatedly on this blog, noise has been linked to adverse mental and physical health effects. Thus, one would not be surprised to learn that Weeks, who suffers from chronic high blood pressure, has now had to increase his daily medication. But he is not suffering alone. Other residents, whose health has been negatively impacted by the noise, have called Hood County Commissioners to voice their complaints.
In response to the residents’ complaints, the facility’s owner Marathon Digital Holdings announced that it commissioned sound studies. As a result, the company will be using a new method to cool the facility. This cooling method has been used at one of its facilities in India and “we have never received questions about its noise levels,” the company said in a statement to CBS News.
This crypto-mining facility in Hood County is not the only one receiving noise complaints. Residents living near similar facilities in the U.S. have expressed how disturbing the noises from these facilities are, and some have filed lawsuits against the mining companies. Essentially, the fans cooling the computers produce intrusive sounds. Some bitcoin mining facilities have been made quiet by changing the way the mine is cooled or by being fully enclosed.
We will have to see whether the cooling method that Marathon Digital Holdings promised to install will indeed lead to the quiet that nearby residents are asking for and deserve.
