WOLFE COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — Brenda Campbell’s home of 40 years is tucked into the rolling hills of Wolfe County, and she says her serenity has been interrupted by the constant hum of a crypto mine next door.
The drone of fans in place to cool the high-powered computers inside the facility can be heard 24/7 at Campbell’s home and several other homes that surround it in the rural residential area.
When LEX 18 first looked into the facility in October, Wolfe County Judge Executive Raymond Banks said the company had told him they would put up a barrier wall to block the noise.
On Thursday, we went back to the mine to see what’s changed.
According to Campbell, not much has.
“It's just cosmetic,” Campbell said. “It really doesn't help.”
While no new wall has been built, fabric has been added to part of the existing chain link fence on one side of the facility. A representative from the company that runs the facility, Artemis Power Tech, said that they are “noise canceling construction site sound blankets.”
The company installed the blankets “despite there being no legal requirement” to bring the noise level down, and did so after getting a third-party professional noise assessment and recommendation.
“We received no further complaints since that installation, and have assumed this issue has been resolved,” the company said in a statement. “Artemis Power Tech is proud to be a member of the Wolfe County community and is willing to take reasonable measures through open communication to ensure we are a long-term trusted partner here.”
While the company says they haven’t received any complaints, at least one neighbor has voiced them to local leaders.
“I'd like for her to come and either close down her facility or do something to actually stop the noise,” Campbell said of the company representative.
Campbell would like the county to enact a noise ordinance to combat the issue, but that’s not a solution Banks is considering.
“I'm not for zoning,” Banks said. “I'm against zoning.”
While Banks acknowledges he wouldn’t want to live next to the noisy crypto mine, he said that ordinances and zoning can drive away possible businesses in a county that’s already struggling.
Banks also said that the chances of another crypto mine coming to the county are “one in a million.”
With the lack of regulations and tracking, it’s hard to say where crypto mines already exist in the state, and where they could pop up next.
Campbell has called state lawmakers to try to get answers, but so far said she hasn’t had any luck.
“There's nobody regulating them and there's nobody paying attention,” Campbell said. “You can talk to your state rep and state senator and you're basically ignored.”
