Ban crypto-mines in Cherokee County, North Carolina

Sign the Petition!  Our tight-knit community in Cherokee County, NC needs your support to help shut down an awful crypto-mine on Harshaw Rd, with a 2nd crypto-mine under construction on Wingate Rd.  Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, our rural and mountainous tranquility has been shattered by the 24/7 deafening noise and vibration of the fans needed to cool the computers/servers.  Both crypto-mines are in residential areas and are situated out in the open with no noise mitigation in place (see video).  Besides the noise pollution, crypto-mining is also notorious for its astronomical amounts of power consumption.  Here we are all trying to live ‘green’ and lessen our carbon footprint while a foreign, for-profit company can come along and use more power than 10,000 households without any pushback? What impact does the noise pollution have on the area’s abundant wildlife?  We need answers to these and other questions.

If you are not aware, China has banned crypto-mining and cryptocurrency as of May 2021, mostly for power consumption and environmental reasons. In response, there has been an exponential increase in crypto-mining locations in the US.  The ideal location is a rural area, with little or no zoning regulations, inexpensive land, proximity to a large river, and hydroelectric production already in place.  The Harshaw Rd site is within the Nantahala National Forest and is in close proximity to the Hiwassee River.  The Hiwassee River has multiple hydroelectric dams managed by the TVA. The TVA then delegates authority to local electric companies.  For the Harshaw Rd crypto-mine, Murphy Electric Power Board is the local electric company.

The natural beauty and tranquility of our area is in jeopardy.  Your community could be next. Please help us to stop, or at least slow down this enterprise.  Here is a link to a recent, NBC news story on the environmental impacts of crypto-mining: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yMsDUEnOw8c