BOURBON COUNTY, Kan. — A rural Bitcoin mining farm is the new hot button topic in southeast Kansas.
“It’s miserable. You know, we listen to it day in and day out when I get up in the morning over a fan and a TV, you hear a humming noise. I don’t care what they do over there. I just don’t want to hear it in my yard,” said Dereck Ranes, Home Owner Across From Facility.
Ranes, who lives across the street from a Bitcoin mining facility in rural Kansas, is fed up with the noise and vibrations — making life untenable.
The facility holds four shipping containers worth of computers constantly solving math equations to mine Bitcoin, powered by an industrial-sized generator, which runs off natural gas.
It emits up to 80 decibels of sound constantly, and a low-frequency hum which can be felt in the surrounding areas.
Ranes and his wife used their life savings to buy their home specifically to enjoy the outdoors, ironically to get away from the noise of the big city.
Dereck Ranes, Home Owner Across From Facility: “We can’t get away from it. I don’t care what they do over there. I just don’t want to hear it in my yard so we can enjoy our yard. We don’t even like coming outside because that’s all you hear is a constant humming noise.”
He says wildlife that used to frequent the area have now cleared out as well.
“We used to have a bunch of deer in our front yard, you know, like a little family, and you don’t see them anymore,” said Ranes.
Ranes says he believes there are ways to stop or lower the noise level.
“Encase it or something, you know, put it inside a building, insulate it with some, you know, acoustic insulation inside a building or something,” saiod Ranes.
Ranes took his concerns to the Bourbon County Commissioners Tuesday night, who voted to put a Moratorium on any expansion of the Bitcoin farm until a compromise can be found.
“I’m trying to make sure that we have due process for both sides, that we’re hearing both sides. And I hear what my constituents are saying and I want to help them. And we we did help them with the moratorium, but we still need to listen to the other side, which they’re they’re due to be here next week,” said Samuel Tran, Bourbon County Commissioner.
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