Hance’s neighbors and community members who helped stage an unsuccessful lawsuit over the plant gather on the sidewalk.
They share anecdotes — a neighbor’s dog who moved to where he sleeps, young children who can’t rest, a new pool that will be less enjoyable with loud noise — and discuss strategies for dealing with the problem. They talked about a nuisance lawsuit or the company building a berm.
Toronto-based Digihost plans to build a barrier to block out some of the noise from the factory, with a design change in the works currently halting construction.
“The North Tonawanda plant continues to move through the NYS bureaucratic process,” Digihost attorney Nick Williams said in a statement. “While we go through this process, we continue to comply with all state and local laws and ordinances, including noise ordinances. We carefully monitor noise levels daily and work with municipal authorities 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 generally operated only during the summer months to supply electricity to the grid.
The company had researched other potential sites in New York, but the moratorium calls that into question. They also operate a mining operation in a former American Axle factory 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 deals with emission standards, expired last year and a renewal application was submitted in a timely manner, according to the DEC.
This permit review will also be a test for the state’s enforcement of the climate law, similar to Greenidge’s renewal application.
The power grid remains a problem
Industry representatives were push back the two-year moratorium proposed by New York on new or renewed permits filed in the future for proof of work of cryptocurrency mining operations at fossil fuel power plants. The bill, which passed the Assembly and must be approved by the State Senate, where a broader ban was passed last year, will not affect Greenidge or Digihost facilities.
Despite the narrow focus of the bill — significantly watered down from previous versions, one of which would have completely stopped all large-scale mining in the state for at least three years — the cryptocurrency industry has continued to cause concern, warning that it will cool investment in the state.
“If the bill passes, New York taxpayers will likely foot the bill for the transition to renewable energy, while other states will see private industry foot the bill,” said Kyle Schneps, policy director public at Foundry, a Rochester-based company. Bitcoin mining operation. He said renewable energy companies pricing crypto mining into their models have pulled out of projects in the state due to the ongoing moratorium.
The measure will not have an immediate impact on the most common type of large-scale digital currency mining in New York: those that draw their power from the electric grid. These are scattered across upstate New York, an area where the electricity mix is already largely zero emissions, backed by aging nuclear power plants and huge 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 mining facilities.
This includes halting rehabilitation work on a building at a former coal-fired power plant on Frontier Avenue, where Blockfusion, which mines Bitcoin, Ethereum and other digital currencies, has set up shop.
