A four-year dispute between rural Hood County residents and a close-by Bitcoin mining operation has uncovered the social prices of Texas’ cryptocurrency increase. Householders turned on one of many state’s largest digital asset mining corporations.
On the heart of the dispute is a big Bitcoin mine operated by MARA Holdings close to Granbury in unincorporated Hood County.
Bitcoin mining is fixed psychological torture
Neighbors say the fixed low-frequency noise from the ability’s cooling system has turned each day life into what they name a endless ordeal. MARA (previously Marathon Digital) says it operates legally, brings funding and jobs, and takes steps to cut back noise.
The mine started operations in 2022 subsequent to a pure fuel energy plant exterior Granbury. Residents quickly reported noise across the clock, likening it to “standing on a runway” or “the sting of Niagara Falls.” Complaints intensified into 2023 as the location expanded.
Residents’ feedback on the Bitcoin mining scenario in Hood County
“I hear this noise each day after I stroll out the again door,” one resident mentioned in a current information story. Al Jazeera reported. Some complained of sleepless nights, complications and stress. “The neighborhood is sick,” mentioned one other resident. “It isn’t simply noise, it is bodily bombardment. It is torture.”
Texas crypto increase reaches regional restrict
Texas will change into the most important Bitcoin mining hub in america, offering practically 30% of the nation’s mining energy by 2023, due to low cost land, low taxes, and a deregulated energy market.
This development collides with vital authorized realities. Counties in Texas usually can not go obligatory noise ordinances. Solely cities can try this.
Hood County officers sought to implement the state’s “unreasonable noise” ordinance in 2024, issuing citations tied to excessive decibel thresholds.
Nonetheless, this effort stalled in courtroom, demonstrating how slender these legal guidelines are in comparison with typical municipal noise limits.
Litigation and sound investigation
Residents organized a non-public nuisance lawsuit in state courtroom, claiming that the noise and vibrations from the mine have been critically interfering with using their houses.
The case remains to be ongoing, with ongoing disputes over entry to operational knowledge and measurements.
Individually, Hood County commissioned an unbiased acoustic survey in late 2024. The report documented a rise in noise ranges close to the location and highlighted that the authorized requirements used within the prison code are much more permissive than noise requirements in different cities.
The research additionally factors out that there are limitations in entry and adjustment that don’t permit full analysis beneath all working situations.
Bitcoin mining hashrate world map. Supply: Chain Information
MARA says it has made vital investments to cut back the influence. The corporate constructed giant noise obstacles, changed some cooling followers with quieter fashions, and commenced transitioning components of the location to immersion cooling.
In an announcement cited by Al Jazeera, MARA mentioned it has invested greater than $320 million regionally, supported dozens of jobs, generated tax income and “stays dedicated to being neighbor.”
For residents, these measures haven’t but gone far sufficient.
“This was our endlessly house,” one home-owner mentioned. “I am unable to promote my property. I am now being taxed at a better charge than the worth of my property.”
Cityhood bid fails
In 2025, residents took a final resort. They need to incorporate their neighborhood as a metropolis, which might permit them to enact native noise legal guidelines.
The trouble garnered nationwide consideration and confronted authorized opposition from MARA, however a decide allowed the vote to proceed. Voters finally rejected the incorporation, ending the try to achieve metropolis authority.
“That was the plan,” the organizer informed Al Jazeera. “But it surely simply fell aside as a result of they misplaced that battle.”
Incorporation is off the desk, however residents say they may proceed to battle in courtroom.
The publish MARA’s Bitcoin mining has change into a nightmare for this Texas city appeared first on BeInCrypto.
