Williams Co. Residents Frustrated With Lack Of Action On Crypto Mine, State Says It’s A Local Problem | The mighty 790 KFGO

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Corey Seidel measures decibels outside the Atlas Power crypto mine last week.

WILLISTON, ND (KFGO) Residents west of Williston held hope for a few hours on Tuesday, June 20, after the Williams County commission voted unanimously to ask the electric co-op local power to cut off part of a local cryptocurrency mine. But Corey Seidel said he knew the effort failed as night fell, when servers were still operating at their usual levels.

It still looks like a jet plane taking off, Seidel said.

Seidel lives in Judson Township, just south of the data center. Only 420 feet separate its property line from that of the Atlas Powers data center. The closest server is about 800 feet from the Seidels Threshold, where he said decibel levels regularly register between 62 and 75. Vacuum cleaners and hair dryers typically operate at around 70 decibels.

The county has asked Mountrail-Williams Electric Co-operative (MWEC) to shut off power to Phase 2 of the joint Atlas Power and FX Solutions project after the companies failed to complete required work on the facility. But the MWEC responded by issuing a subpoena and asking a judge to intervene. No court date has been set and the power remains on at Atlas.

Phase 1 of the project was completed and started operating last year. Phase 2 construction began soon after, and its servers began operating this spring without the companies receiving a certificate of occupancy from Williams County, setting up the stalemate that led to the vote of the commission to cut the power. Base construction, roads, safety measures and noise abatement efforts were among the outstanding works cited by the commission in its decision.

At a previous commission meeting, FX Solutions President Rick Tabish disagreed with residents’ claims about noise and safety violations occurring at the facility. Seidel says he spent $6,000 on a professional-grade sound level meter so he could check the decibels coming from the facility after discrepancies emerged between what residents and FX Solutions employees were reporting to the house. commission.

Tabish met with Judson Township this spring and said noise abatement efforts were underway, but residents say they haven’t heard any evidence of it yet.

Seidel said people who inspected the property in the fall of 2021 told him a storage company had purchased the property, which until then had been an alfalfa field. The property had been zoned heavy industrial for more than a decade, but most residents say they had no idea. Seidel said real estate agents have told residents that their property values ​​have dropped significantly since the data center was installed.

Another resident of Judson Township is Lacie White. His house is less than 300 meters from the data center. She said family members had lived there for 30 years and until about a year ago it was peaceful, with only the occasional rumble of jake brakes or other freeway noise filtering through from Highway 2. But she measured the decibel level by the window in her 7-year-old daughter’s bedroom the day before the committee vote and it was 67.

My daughter wakes up in the middle of the night and she has trouble going back to sleep because that’s all she hears, White said.

World Health Organization guidelines for community noise recommend less than 30 decibels in bedrooms overnight for good quality sleep and less than 40 decibels annual average outside bedrooms to avoid adverse effects nocturnal noise on health.

The decision by Atlas Power and FX Solutions to locate the $1.9 billion data center was highly publicized by Governor Doug Burgum and other heads of state. When he made the announcement in January 2022, Burgum said the crypto mine would be one of the largest in the world.

When Governor Burgum was the one to dig the first shovel of dirt, it kind of crushed our dreams of the state doing anything to help, White said.

White said she was disappointed the MWEC refused to turn off the power, but she said she also understood if they had any legal obligations preventing them from doing so. Seidel said he wished the county had been more proactive early on in the project to hold Atlas and FX accountable.

Josh Teigen is the state’s commerce commissioner. He said the state probably wouldn’t intervene in the matter.

This is a complex situation as this is a huge customer and a huge revenue generator for Mountrail Williams Co Op. At the same time any business that we bring into the state we want it to be good partners. But at the state level, this is truly a local problem, and locals know this cost-benefit better than anyone. Our hope is that both sides come to a resolution and then everyone can move on and get back to business, Teigen said.

Teigen said if the state were to take action, it would likely be up to the civil service commissions to step in, but Lacie White said she contacted the PSC and received a response saying she had no no competence in the matter.

Meanwhile, in Williams County, the crypto servers are buzzing, with no obvious signs of relief on the horizon for people who live within earshot of the Atlas mine.

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