Looks like this is a follow up to this article from February: https://time.com/6590155/bitcoin-mining-noise-texas/
Over the summer, the company agreed to construct a 24-foot sound barrier wall on one end of the property at the cost of $1 to $2 million. But while the wall reduced sound in some areas, it actually amplified it in others. “To be honest, the complaints have gotten louder for us since the mitigation efforts,” Constable John Shirley says.
Amazing. “We spent some money and made things worse, so I guess we’re stuck.”
Back in Granbury, the discomfort caused by the plant is causing some consternation for a region that largely prides itself on being pro-industry and anti-regulation. “I agree with people having the right to own a business if it’s not illegal or amoral,” says Granbury resident Wolf. “But when you’re harming a group of people, there needs to be some type of remedy.”
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Wait, the thin frames in the first picture are the “sound barrier”. Good lord.
Of course they care about the harm businesses do, with it’s in their face effecting them and they can’t deny it.
Any statewide legislation is sure to hit significant headwinds, because the very idea of regulation runs contrary to many Texans’ political beliefs. “As constitutional conservatives, they have taken our core values and used that against us,” says Demetra Conrad, a city council member in the nearby town of Glen Rose.
Who left the gate open at the leopard farm?
Seriously though, this is awful. And jack-all will be done about it.
“No step on snek”/“at least it’s not the goberment”
dichotomycontinuumpam from the office holding the same pictures meme
Wow, I expected to read about people voting themselves out of healthcare so bitcoin mines can operate at 1% cheaper, instead I got data center induced Havana Syndrome.
edit: I love that throughout the article they keep referring to the police chief who’s fighting the mining installation as a former oath keeper, the fuck-one-monkey principle at work.
- I wish people would finally start calling me the anti-crypto police chief.
- Whatever you say Monkeyfucker Joe.
As someone with regular migraines who’s also very sensitive to noise, this is crazy, and sound pollution is something most people don’t even take seriously.
the Granbury Bitcoin mine is emitting 70 or even 90 decibels on a nightly basis
90 decibels? Fucking end me.
90 decibels is about as loud as a truck driving past or a (legal, not stupid noisy) motorcycle from 4-5 metres away at 70% rpm.
If they’re more than 500 metres away this would be a slight annoyance at worst.
The article mentions studies but doesn’t link any. It uses one doctor as a reputable source but we know doctors can fall for conspiracy theories like anyone else.
This sounds like the anti-wind farm idiots who claim all sorts of health issues but ONLY after they’ve read about these health issues from conspiracy theories.
The nocebo effect is real, these people might be suffering, but I have serious doubts the cause is actually some air conditioning… which is what will cause the noise from data centres.
90 decibels is about as loud as a truck driving past or a (legal, not stupid noisy) motorcycle from 4-5 metres away at 70% rpm.
If they’re more than 500 metres away this would be a slight annoyance at worst.
Yeah, but a motorcycle won’t drive past you non-stop and 24/7.
There’s still zero evidence for these claims of mysterious health issues.
People have lived with noise pollution before.
Prolonged exposure to noise pollution is an unproven health risk? Yeah right.
“People have lived with water pollution before”, he says, dumping a truckload of depleted uranium into the swimming pool.
People have lived with noise pollution before.
“thanks” for your contribution
It’s not a conventional data center. It’s a bunch of containers containing mining hardware with giant fans blowing through them. This is obvious from the header image of the article.
As more machines were switched on, the noise sounded like a ceiling fan, then a leaf blower, then a jet engine. (…) The noise floated miles down the winding Brazos river, through the lush golf courses in the gated community Pecan Plantation and past county lines.
As rock music blares from the speakers and other patrons chatter away, Rosenkranz pulls out her phone and clocks 72 decibels on a sound meter app—the same level that she records in Indigo’s bedroom in the dead of night.
“Imagine if I had vuvuzela in your ear all the time,” he says.
Having to deal with 60 decibels when you want to sleep is already a fucking hassle. 70+ is straight up torture
The mr cop of the place being “a former member of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia whose leaders were convicted of seditious conspiracy against the U.S. government” feels like he’s finally being forced to deal with the shit he was defending
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That statement sounds to me as baffling as a snake eating its’ own tail.
It betrays the fact that they actually do not believe in anything coherent, reality is deeply twisted in their lazy and selfish, wilfully-ignorant little minds.The core value, presumably, of individual liberty. Do what you want with your property. And they’re using it against them by… using their property in a way that creates a negative externality that bothers them.
Just let the free market sort it out, that’s how it works right? Thoughts and prayers
Holy shit.
We need to send nasty butters (the ones that are particularly cruel and/or malicious) to live in this bitcoin mining plant. No leaving the premises!
Good read, absolutely fucked
Couldn’t find it, but are there any sound / video so we can hear what it’s like?
This news clip has a bit of the noise, but they don’t showcase it much.
You’d think that in a small town something would mysteriously happen to that mine op. Kind of a Ken McElroy situation. Surprising it hasn’t yet.
Couldn’t be happening to a nicer town
And if you wondered, would that also be a sundown town? Wonder no more.
Nobody deserves to deal with coiners. Not even those guys.
Of course, im just saying the place sucks. And not everybody who lives in a place stands behind the policies of the wider place etc (and the poorest usually have the least influence/ability to leave, also lot of people hurt by this are children etc). Hope this changes some more minds there.
This is not what I expected, tbh. I was in here ready to make jokes about the health risks of bear attacks, but this is something else.
Yeah. Also, 91db?? What the actual fuck?
Above even Texas’ legal limit for nighttime noise in residential homes, which is way above the safe limit.
Could be a dboiled frog type situation.
There’s no way they can afford security commensurate with the level of provocation they’re subjecting the locals to.
i’m sure doing this in Texas will be fine
Definitely not one of the most heavily armed states in the USA.
They said they’re going to replace the fans by the end of 2024. Are they allowed to operate in the meantime? They should absolutely be force to shut the mine down until they’ve fixed the issue.
Former Oath Keeper police chief says best he can do is keep fining them $500 for noise pollution as often as possible, supposedly there’s no legal way to force stop the source of the noise complaint, and Texas counties can’t pass their own ordinances, only cities can. It also says someone is exploring if they can get the installation declared a public nuisance or something along those lines to open more legal avenues.
I feel that once old people start dying of stress and children are getting sleep deprivation torture while bleeding from their ears, more drastic options should have been on the table down at militia central, but I guess they have other priorities and/or know which side their bread is buttered.
Texas counties can’t pass their own ordinances, only cities can
We hate central big government so we have eliminated all the local small governments as a precaution.
is keep fining them $500 for noise pollution
If the price of the breaking the law is a fine, etc
They’ve also contested all fines and haven’t paid a dime of the ~18.000$ total so far, while probably paying several times that in lawyer’s fees.
Maybe this means that while 500$ is peanuts to them having the repeat offense in the books probably isn’t good in the long run, but I’m not a texan lawyer.
Yeah of course they hired a lawyer and are going to court over a 18k fine while they make millions. Costing everybody even more money. I hope one of the retirees is a vet who has experience with mortars.
It’s almost as if these crypto miners don’t care about laws or even the world in which they live!
these are crypto guys, so in general assume they’re liars. and they might not be in business by then
