HOOD COUNTY, Texas — It’s the constant, loud hum in rural Hood County that is keeping long-time nearby residents up at night.
The loud noise is coming from a Bitcoin mining operation on a power plant in Granbury.
Chery Shadden’s home and property sit across the road from it.
“It is absolutely horrific,” Shadden said. "It rattles your doors, your windows. You can hear it permeating your home.”
Shadden has begun engaging with state and county leaders to fix the problem. Signs reading “Bitcoin sux” sit along her fence, facing the busy road near the Bitcoin farm.
“It’s like being a prisoner and being plied with interrogation tactics,” Shadden said. “Sleep deprivation, noise being blasted at you 24 hours a day, it’s been really bad for the last six months.”
The massive hum is caused by fans used to cool the computer equipment, which are running around the clock to uncover cryptocurrency.
According to data from Foundry USA, Texas is now the Bitcoin capital of the world. Shadden said she and her neighbors had no idea the Bitcoin plant was moving into their community.
Now, they want it gone. Shadden said she believes the loud noise is the root cause of her health problems.
“A lot of us have hearing loss now. Our ears ring 24/7 when we're at home,” Shadden said. “The first thing you notice when you wake up is your ears are ringing, and you have headaches. You can’t sleep. It’s terrible. It’s detrimental to your livelihood, livestock, health.”
Nannete Samuelson, a Hood County Commissioner in Precinct 2, held a town hall meeting and listened to concerned residents.
“It was quite overwhelming, the stories that I heard,” Samuelson said.
She told WFAA solving the problem has been a challenge because the Bitcoin mining industry is largely unregulated.
“Unfortunately, the state gives counties very limited abilities to regulate businesses outside of city limits. That’s in the unincorporated part of the county, so we don’t have a lot of options
She says one potential solution the county may pursue is issuing noise citations.
The company that owns the Bitcoin operation in Hood County, Las Vegas-based Marathon Digital Holdings issues a statement in response to the noise complaints, saying in part:
“Marathon Digital Holdings deeply values our relationships with the communities in which we live and work, and we appreciate the candid input that has been shared with us in recent weeks… (cont.) Prior to the purchase and taking on operation, the company was not aware of the noise issues. Now that we operate the site and have team members on-site, we are working to gather information and address the situation.”
A 24-foot sound barrier was built around the equipment, but Erendira Ruiz, whose mobile home sits beside the Bitcoin farm, said the noise is even louder.
“It shakes the ground and my windows,” Ruiz said in Spanish. “Truthfully, it’s so uncomfortable. It gets even louder at night. I get headaches, I never had them before.”
Shadden has joined the Texas Coalition against Crypto Mining, which was founded by Jackie Sawicky.
“It’s so much worse than we know,” Sawicky said. “This industry is at the nexis of every environmental justice issue. They’re putting it in poor, rural, often, communities of people of color. Noise pollution is a health crisis that most Texans don’t even know is happening.”
During the last legislative agenda, Sawicky spoke to lawmakers in Austin and advocated for Senate Bill 1751, which would regulate Bitcoin facilities.
The bill passed in the Senate, but it failed to make it through the House.
Shadden plans to attend meetings and confront state and local leaders until the problem is solved.
“All it takes is one person to stand up and start gaining some steam, that’s what I’m doing,” Shadden said.
She vows to keep pushing until her community’s voice of opposition is enough to silence the constant drone.
Samuelson had added a public hearing to the Hood County Commissioner's Court agenda for Feb. 13.