Officials in Eaton County’s Hamlin Township have issued a cease-and-desist order to a local power company for adding a bitcoin mining facility that some are calling excessively noisy.
The Grand River Power Company added the bitcoin storage and processing trailer earlier this year without notifying township officials, according to the township zoning administrator.
Charles Lowery described an all-day, high-pitched noise coming from the facility which started around the end of September. He lives across the street from the trailer.
“First of all it is, I know that it is, a noise that has not been there before because they installed a trailer full of bitcoin miners with fans that make an incredible high-pitched noise, and if that were by your house, I’m sure that you’d be annoyed with it as well,” Lowery said.
A public hearing is set for Dec. 3 to discuss possibly changing the zoning from limited agricultural to industrial.
If that happens, the power company would have to add a sound wall, construct a building over the facility, or find other ways to eliminate the noise.
At least four large scale bitcoin mining operations have been identified in Michigan, with three in the Upper Peninsula and one in the southwest part of the state, according to Bridge Michigan.
On Tuesday, township zoning administrator Denise Perkins said that township officials issued the cease-and-desist order on Oct. 1 and notified residents living within 1,000 feet of the Smithville Dam about the public hearing on Nov. 10.
The Grand River Power Company owns the Smithville Dam.
The noise stopped shortly after the township issued the cease-and-desist order.
Grand River Power Company owner Roy Davis said the decibel level on Smithville Road is lower less than that of a residential neighborhood, adding that he's doing everything by the rules.
"We're totally cooperative," Davis said. "We're just waiting to see what the public hearing says."
Perkins said changing the zoning from limited agricultural to industrial makes sense, but the power company still will have to apply for a conditional use permit for the bitcoin facility if the zoning change is approved. The township planning commission will have the final say in the outcome, Perkins said.
“That parcel shouldn’t be zoned limited agricultural anyway,” she said. “Whether or not they’ll get the C.U.P. (conditional use permit) approved, again that’s not the zoning administrator, it’s the planning commission, but they’ll have to go through that process, and with that, the planning commission can offer conditions.”
She said the city of Eaton Rapids, which buys some of its power from the Grand River Power Company, connected the power for the trailer.
The Dec. 3 public hearing is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. in the Hamlin Township Hall, 6463 S. Clinton Trail.