'Every Family Here Is Sick,' Say Neighbors of Texas Bitcoin Mining Center
Many residents of a Texas town southwest of Dallas who are facing health problems allegedly caused by constant noise don't seem to have anything positive to say about a cryptocurrency mining company run by MARA Holdings.
In a video released Thursday by the nonprofit advocacy organization More Perfect Union, journalist Dan Lieberman spoke with residents of Granbury, Texas, some of whom lived less than a mile from MARA’s 300-megawatt bitcoin (BTC) mining facility. Many residents and retirees described their lives as “hell” due to the near-constant noise coming from the mining facility, located in unincorporated Hood County.
“It will never stop, the headaches will never go away,” one elderly resident said on camera, as the noise of a factory could be heard in the background.
The MARA mining operation near Granbury, Texas. Source: More Perfect Union
The mining operation, located near some remote areas of Granbury, was originally launched in 2022 by Compute North, which filed for bankruptcy later that year. MARA acquired the operation in January 2024.
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“This is a specific type of noise pollution,” said Mandy DeRoche, deputy managing attorney for the environmental nonprofit Earthjustice. “It’s not like truck noise or anything like that. It’s a specific low-frequency noise that comes from these businesses, and it’s constant.”
A group of residents who had been experiencing the noise for months, some even years, filed a lawsuit against MARA (then Marathon Digital) in October 2024. The lawsuit alleged that some residents had experienced “sensory, emotional, psychological, and medical impacts” from the noise associated with BTC mining, including exacerbation of existing medical conditions.
According to interviews with More Perfect Union, locals claimed that the conditions resulted in hospitalizations, “constant headaches,” and possibly the death of the horse.
Cointelegraph reached out to MARA and Earthjustice for comment, but neither organization had responded by the time of publication.
On Wednesday, MARA announced plans to issue up to $1 billion in convertible senior notes, a portion of which will be used to purchase BTC. At press time, the company reportedly held 50,000 BTC, worth about $6 billion.
How Can Cryptocurrency Mining Affect the Upcoming US Elections?
Months before the Texas residents filed their lawsuit against MARA, many crypto mining executives met with then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. The meeting likely contributed to Trump publicly expressing his support and approval of BTC mining, and then including it in his campaign promises in a speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville.
“As far as Bitcoin goes, yeah,” one Granbury resident responded when asked if he regretted voting for Trump in 2024. “I don’t have a problem with the industry. I have a problem with what it’s doing to the people here. I think it’s being ignored.”
Trump's Republican-led Congress has not passed specific legislation addressing bitcoin mining, but three bills were introduced last week that address stablecoins, central bank digital currencies and the structure of the digital asset market.
In March, the president also signed an executive order to create national reserves of cryptocurrencies and BTC in the United States.
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Source: cryptonews.net
