Living in data center hell
News about the environmental impact of data centers and cryptocurrency mining facilities is everywhere. Now that New Hampshire towns have been approached by data centers, it’s time to ask: What is it like to live next to one and its noise?
This is what we could experience, based on reports quoting people who live next to one of these facilities. The first is from a More Perfect Union video report at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7_WDzPyoqU.
Nick and Virginia Browning, in their 80s, have lived in their Granbury, Texas, home for 35 years: “When we first moved out here, it was real quiet still,” said Virginia Browning. But since a crypto-mining facility came to town, it has been hell, they say. “This is maddening to me,” said Nick Browning. “And I just want to scream at somebody.” Their neighbor, Tom Weeks, hears the noise in the bedroom at 2 a.m. He calls noise from the facility “disgusting” and notes: “There’s a certain amount of cruelty to that.”
A Popular Mechanics article highlighted a similar situation in Murphy, North Carolina. The noise, residents say, is especially terrible at night and early morning. Gene Johnson can still hear the “low rumble” even after he removes his hearing aids. Another couple who lived two houses down from the mine, moved farther away. However, moving isn’t an option for Patricia Callahan because nothing is within her budget. “I’m trapped here,” she said.
Doesn’t sound great.