Crypto miner, Pennsylvania hit with lawsuit over pollution from bitcoin mine

 An environmental community group on Tuesday sued Stronghold Digital Mining Inc opens new tabs claiming the company's bitcoin mine in northeastern Pennsylvania that burns waste coal and old tires for energy is polluting nearby communities with dangerous chemicals.

The lawsuit by Save Carbon County filed in state court in Philadelphia, also names Pennsylvania as a defendant. The group, a nonprofit whose members live near the bitcoin mine, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages from the company, and an order directing the state to stop allowing the pollution to continue.

The group said Stronghold has created a public and private nuisance by releasing mercury into waterways and spewing harmful chemicals like sulfur dioxide into the air from an aging power plant it bought to power its energy-thirsty operations.

The state has issued permits allowing the pollution and subsidized the crypto-mine through tax incentives despite having an affirmative duty in the state constitution to protect the environment for its citizens, according to the lawsuit.

A Stronghold spokesperson said in a statement that its operations actually clean up land and water in the area by using waste coal left behind by historic coal production in the region.

"Stronghold’s facilities have cleaned up millions of tons of waste coal and reclaimed over 1,050 acres of once-blighted land, now sports fields, parks, and fishing spots for local communities," the spokesperson said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection declined to comment.

Cryptocurrency mining is a process that often uses large amounts of electricity for computing and cooling data processing centers, which perform complex math equations in order to secure cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

The University of Cambridge has estimated 38% of bitcoin produced globally is mined in the U.S., where the number of mines has exploded since 2021 when china banned cryptocurrency mining amid concerns the highly volatile digital currencies could undermine the stability of financial and monetary systems.