Organizations run by an environmental organization filed a lawsuit against the US city of Torrey, New York, for giving the green light to expand a Bitcoin mining facility at the Greenidge Generation power station.
Environmental organization files lawsuit against New York Town for approving the BTC mining facility expansion plan
According to court documents, the Sierra Club – who heads the lawsuit – the Finger Lakes Conservation Committee, Seneca Lake Guardian, and others filed an Article 78 petition with the Yates County Supreme Court against Greenidge Generation LLC, the City of Torrey, and the Torrey Planning Board to get a court order to block construction.
They allege in the allegations that the proposed expansion of the mining facility will damage the water discharges into Lake Seneca, which began operations in early 2019, and that the data equipment used plant-generated electricity that was never connected to the grid.
While officials said such activities did not violate any law, plaintiffs insure otherwise. The Greenidge plant asked the city of Torrey to expand its bitcoin mining facilities in early 2020 by building four new warehouses to house refrigeration and computer equipment.
However, the Article 78 petition states that local officials have violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act:
Greenidge applied for approval of this project through two separate but interdependent permit applications, thereby segmenting the application for approval.
According to Fingerlakes1, the petition also alleged that the planning authority had not considered closely examining the need for additional water to cool the power plant “and the discharge of superheated water into Lake Seneca”.
Health Concerns
Two of the plaintiffs said they feared their health could be “harmed” if the Bitcoin mining facilities expand as expected.
Despite previous efforts prior to the lawsuit by the organizations involved in the legal action, Greenidge commented:
Even with this project (Bitcoin expansion), our plant remains firmly within the environmental limits set by the state and federal government.
Atlas Holding, a private equity firm and owner of Greenidge, installed around 7,000 bitcoin mining machines in 2019.
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