Hance’s neighbors and community members who helped organize an unsuccessful lawsuit over the plant gather on the sidewalk.
They share anecdotes — a neighbor’s dog that moved where it sleeps, young children who can’t rest, a new pool that will be less enjoyable with the loud noise — and discuss strategies to fix the problem. They talked about a nuisance lawsuit or the company building a berm.
Digihost, based in Toronto, plans to build a barrier to block some of the noise from the plant, with a design change in the works currently pausing construction.
“The plant in North Tonawanda continues to advance through the NYS bureaucratic process,” Digihost counsel Nick Williams said in a statement. “While we go through that process, we continue to comply with all state and local laws and ordinances, including noise ordinances. We carefully monitor noise levels everyday and work with city officials to verify measurements and ensure compliance.”
The Fortistar plant emitted more carbon dioxide in the first three months of 2022 than in the previous two years combined, according to EPA data. The plant has typically run only in the summer months to supply electricity to the grid.
The company had been scouting other potential sites in New York, but the moratorium puts that into question. They also operate a mining operation at a former American Axle plant in Buffalo.
The North Tonawanda plant in Niagara County meets DEC emissions regulations, according to the company. The plant’s Title V air permit, which addresses emission standards, expired last year and an application for a renewal has been submitted in a timely manner, according to DEC.
That permit review will also pose a test for the state’s application of the climate law, similar to Greenidge’s renewal application.
Grid power remains an issue
Industry representatives have been pushing back on New York’s proposed two-year moratorium on new or renewed permits filed in the future for proof of work cryptocurrency mining operations at fossil fuel plants. The bill, which has passed the Assembly and needs approval in the state Senate, where a broader prohibition passed last year, will not affect Greenidge or Digihost’s facilities.
Despite the narrow focus of the bill — drastically watered down from earlier versions, one of which would have entirely halted all large-scale mining in the state for at least three years — the cryptocurrency industry has continued to raise concerns, warning that it will chill investment in the state.
“If the bill passes, it will likely result in New York taxpayers footing the bill for transition to renewable energy, while other States will have private industry paying the tab,” said Kyle Schneps, director of public policy at Rochester-based Foundry, a Bitcoin mining operation. He said renewable energy companies pricing crypto mining into their models have backed away from projects in the state because of the pending moratorium.
The measure will not have an immediate impact on the more common type of large-scale digital currency mining in New York: those that draw power from the electric grid. These are scattered across upstate New York, a region where the electricity mix is already largely zero emissions, underpinned by aging nuclear power plants and massive hydroelectric dams.
In Niagara Falls, best known for the thundering waterfall spanning the border but also a former major industrial hub for the chemical industry, the city has imposed its own moratorium due to complaints about noise from the mining facilities.
That includes a halt to work on rehabbing a building at an old coal plant on Frontier Avenue, where Blockfusion, which mines Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies, has set up shop.