North Tonawanda places two-year moratorium on new crypto mining facilities

North Tonawanda, N.Y. (WBEN) - There will be no new cryptocurrency mining operations in North Tonawanda, at least for the next two years.

The North Tonawanda Common Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to place a moratorium on new cyrptomining operations in the city, especially following several complaints living close to cryptomining plants.

The moratorium means there is now a two-year pause on any new crypto mining plants, as well as the expansion of existing facilities like Digihost, which has been operating off Erie Avenue in the Fortistar gas power plant it acquired, commencing operations in February 2022.

North Tonawanda Mayor Austin Tylec on WBEN noted that two years ago, when he was on the city's council, he proposed a moratorium so the city could figure out more on what operations entail, but at the time it was voted down.

"It wouldn't necessarily affect the existing plants, it would affect expansion of the existing plant or any new development," Tylec noted.

This action from the council comes after many North Tonawanda residents complained of the noise deriving from the Digihost facility and their concerns with emissions.

"Digihost came in and wanted to utilize the plant by these data processing centers, they're like large shipping containers that were retrofitted to put all these computers in them, and there's fans on these pods that cool them. And that's really where the biggest piece of the noise happens."

The mayor notes that the New York State DEC handles emission inspections and every five years, the facility has to have an approved Title V Air Permit, their permit is currently pending right now, and the mayor notes that it takes a lot of time for the DEC to process the amount of reviews it does.

"Residents are kind of shouting about the need for the DEC to make a decision on this, but it's my understanding there are thousands and thousands of these permits backed up. I think I read 8 to 10 years until they could all be covered, that's just mind blowing. We have been talking to state officials about this to see if there's any way we could get things moving a little bit more and ultimately it will be up to the DEC about their permits," said Mayor Tylec.

So why just a moratorium and not a straight ban?

"This whole type of industry is expanding in so many different ways and there may be beneficial aspects of it, but there should be parameters in place," explains Mayor Tylec.

"We need to update our zoning laws, there's a lot of different things that we should consider that we just don't know about yet. So this time would allow the city to really understand this type of industry and then accommodate it, if possible."

The mayor also adds that Digihost has put up and acoustic wall to deafen the sound and are working to build another wall. In addition, the council is hiring a noise expert Les Blomberg of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse to conduct noise monitoring around the plant, train police to use noise equipment to ensure noise ordinance is adhered to, as well as provide insight for the city to update their noise ordinance.