North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - North Tonawanda residents and advocates from Earthjustice gathered on Sherwood Avenue in the city on Thursday to urge New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to deny an air permit renewal application for the crypto-mining plant, Digihost/Fortistar, on Erie Avenue.
Almost two years ago on June 30, 2022, the DEC denied the Title V Air Permit renewal for Greenidge Generation, a crypto-mining facility in the Finger Lakes, citing dramatic increase in greenhouse gas emissions. This decision has since been upheld twice in 2023 and 2024.
Activists say this sets a precedent for the DEC to deny Digihost's air permit renewal application in North Tonawanda.
"We are here today to let Gov. Hochul and the DEC know we are counting on them to get the permit review process completed, and deny any air permit renewal for this facility and its new use as a Bitcoin mining operation. This action would be consistent with the air permit denied two years ago for a similar Bitcoin operation near Seneca Lake. With this precedent in place, we expect the DEC to be consistent and deny the air permit renewal for Digihost as soon as possible," said Deborah Gondek, chair of the North Tonawanda Climate Smart Task Force.
Like Greenidge, Digihost has been operating on an expired DEC-issued air permit. Digihost's air permit expired two-and-a-half years ago on Nov. 8, 2021, and its application for permit renewal has been pending for over three years.
The facility's increasing greenhouse gas emissions make it a major contributor to climate change and local air pollution, especially in the "heat dome" the Western New York region is dealing with this week.
"Digihost, by their own projections, admit they will plan to emit as much as 312,000 tons of GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions every year. That's equivalent to the climate warming emissions caused by more than 165,000 homes. In just one year, the Digihost projections [show] that 312,000 tons of emissions is more than double what they emitted from the years 2016 to 2023 combined. In just one year, they plan to increase their emissions more than the past seven years combined. That's a steep increase," said Jessamine De Ocampo, Associate Attorney with Earthjustice and its Clean Energy Program.
Perhaps the most talked about complaint with the Digihost plant is the noise pollution that is negatively impacting residents' daily lives. Mark Polito says he lives a mile away from the Digihost plant, and the amount of noise pollution that comes from the plant on a daily basis is unbearable.
"It sounds very much like a jet taxiing in up to a gate. The sound is constant, it's steady, and it increases and decreases at various times of the day and night," said Polito during Thursday's press conference. "At night, it gets really loud when most people are trying to sleep. During the day, it's loud enough to keep me out of my backyard. I never see my neighbors in their yards either."
The constant loud noise that emanates from the Digihost plant is even troublesome for residents like Polito from the comfort of their own home.
"When sitting in my family room, doing a little reading, which also faces the backyard, the noise penetrates through the walls that face that yard. My bedroom also faces the yard as well. This noise can be heard when I'm trying to sleep. This causes a great deal of stress and restless nights."
Research has shown that chronic noise such as this is a largely unrecognized health threat that increases the risk of hypertension, stroke, and heart attacks. Noise pollution also impacts human physical health and mental health, as well the health of pets and wildlife.
Residents are also urging the North Tonawanda City Council to approve a two-year moratorium on crypto-mining, with a vote on the matter coming this July.
"Like many communities across New York State, our city currently lacks specific zoning codes and other regulations to adequately address and manage the unique challenges posed by Bitcoin mining. So to ensure this Digihost debacle isn't repeated in North Tonawanda, Mayor [Austin] Tylec and I have drafted a resolution for a two-year cryptocurrency moratorium in our city," Gondek said. "We appreciate all that Mayor Tylec is doing to resolve a problem he tried very, very hard to avoid in the first place. It's amazing what a little courage, creativity and compassion can do."
Mayor Tylec says his city attorney reviewed the two-year moratorium on Thursday that would hit the brakes on any new cryptocurrency or blockchain authentication developments. While he says this doesn't necessarily mean it will affect the existing plant on Erie Avenue, it will allow the city to make the necessary updates to its zoning codes.
"We currently have, in progress, our Comprehensive Plan update, that's like a city-wide master plan, and we will be throwing in aspects to evaluate, study, what would this new type of development do to the city? Do we or don't we want anything like it? Regardless of the plant that currently exists, there's different ways that businesses, these developments with cryptocurrency could affect our community. So we need to take a hard look," said Tylec with WBEN on Thursday.
Tylec believes his office and the City Council is all on board to take a serious look into the matter at hand. He adds the city continues to keep an open communication with the plant manager at Digihost to see what's going on.
"It's my understanding they will be shutting down the operation for a few weeks, it sounds like they're doing some equipment updates and whatnot. But we'll see from the time that goes on now," Tylec said.
In the meantime, one thing the city is getting information and a quote on is training education for police officers, someone from code enforcement, and the attorney's office to do acoustic readings.
"There is a gentleman who was referenced recently in The Buffalo News who is an expert with acoustic reading and training. I've been in communication with him, and he is providing me with quotes, cost to come in and do a two-day course," Tylec noted. "He gave us an option for putting him on retainer to do acoustic readings, and basically just so we can move along with, internally, what equipment, what training we need to do noise readings for the plant that currently exists, for any facility really, so we educate ourselves and so on. It does look like this cost could be anywhere around $10,000 to $20,000, depending on which different pieces we choose, but we definitely want to educate some of our employees on how to handle these things."
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