UPDATE: The moratorium on new crypto-mining plants in North Tonawanda was passed.
Leaders in North Tonawanda said they will use the two-year pause to address community concerns. You can watch the new report below.
ORIGINAL: North Tonawanda homeowners rallied outside city hall on Tuesday to voice their concern about the Digihost Plant, a cryptocurrency mining plant in their neighborhood.
The homeowners were there to show support for a two-year moratorium on cryptocurrency mining.
Council members will vote on the moratorium next week. If passed, it would stop any new cryptocurrency mining facilities in North Tonawanda.
The Digihost Plant won’t be affected, but it will be restricted from expanding operations.
Homeowner Mark Polito told 7 News reporter Yoselin Person he has lived in North Tonawanda for the past three years and it was peaceful until Digihost broke ground.
“My house is three-quarters of a mile from the plant and it impacts my house a lot. The part of it that faces where the noise is coming from you can hear noises coming through the walls.”
Other neighbors who live roughly 900 feet from the facility say the hissing sound is unbearable.
“I've lived there for 38 years and this noise is just horrendous. It’s like nothing we’ve ever heard before from any of the other plants around."
“We have to make this transition away from use of fossil fuels which means we have to be very careful about these big power drawing sources."
7 News spoke with Council President Frank Dibernardo on the issue.
“We know what we’re on the hook for. We’re on the hook for the noise coordination and enforcement so that’s why we’re going to go and look at where we’re at. And Digihost has said they want to work this out so they’re on the hook for the noise mitigation.”
Mayor Austin Tylec said they will hire a third-party organization called “Noise Pollution Clearinghouse,” experts in acoustic training and updating codes.
“Once we have all this information collected that’s where we really need to evaluate our codes and ultimately Digihost would have to take that data and understand what they need to do and then hire another company to end up doing mitigation of the noise.”
Taxpayers are crossing their fingers that the council will move forward with the proposed moratorium.
“It's really important that we have this moratorium in place so that city officials and departments can work together to update our noise control ordinance, zoning codes, and other requirements for this new and highly unregulated industry."
No representative of Digihost was at Tuesday's evening public hearing. We reached out for comment and haven't heard back.
