‘Unbearable’ Noise and Chicken Deaths: Lawsuits Mount Against Local Crypto Mine

Lawsuits continue to be filed over a controversial crypto mining operation in Hood County that some residents say has disrupted life in the primarily rural county.

A group of those living within a mile of the crypto mine filed a lawsuit against the facility’s operator, MARA Holdings, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on May 1. The lawsuit alleges noise from the operation has caused physical and emotional harm to residents, who are asking for financial damages in excess of $1 million.

According to the filing, the facility’s cooling fans constantly emit “unbearable” noise and low-frequency sound, which have allegedly led to health problems for locals, including cardiac issues, tinnitus, permanent hearing loss and insomnia. The lawsuit also alleges that noise from the MARA Holdings facility has resulted in adverse effects on livestock — notably, the filing lists “unexplained” chicken deaths — lowered property values and an inability for residents to sell their land.

The crypto mine has caused significant backlash from Hood County Residents since it was built in 2022 for Compute North, a crypto mining company that went bankrupt later that year. In 2024, they unsuccessfully attempted to create their own municipality to exert regulatory authority that the county, thus far, seems to lack. The plant manager was issued 37 noise citations by Hood County constables through April 2024, the lawsuit states, although he was later acquitted by a jury.

This month’s lawsuit is tied to two existing personal injury lawsuits against the nearly $5 billion company that were consolidated in April, Adair v. Marathon Digital Holdings and Engle v. MARA Holdings. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor consolidated the three cases. 

A separate lawsuit, Citizens Concerned About Wolf Hollow v. Marathon Digital Holdings, seeks an injunction to prevent the MARA facility from creating “unreasonable noise.” The case is backed by Earthpiece, a legal nonprofit specializing in public-interest environmental litigation, and has been twice remanded to local courts by federal judges.

The cases come at a time when life in the county is being increasingly upended by tech-centered industrialization. With a population of just under 62,000 in 2024, residents have navigated an uneasy, often tense debate over the growing development of data centers, crypto mines and the power plants needed to supply them.

“It was our happy place,” Lakey said. “So when we had the opportunity to come out here, we decided that it would be a good thing to come and live in the country, have a little bit of land, and have some peace and quiet.”

His property sits half a mile from the crypto mine. He and his wife have kept the TV on at night since the noise started, and he said he hasn’t slept well in close to four years. Lakey is a plaintiff in one of the three personal injury lawsuits against MARA.

MARA representatives have repeatedly insisted that the sound coming from the facility complies with state and federal regulations. Noise emitted from the facility routinely falls between 63 and 78 decibels, according to a third-party analysis cited on the crypto mine’s website. In a statement to the Observer, a spokesperson for MARA Holdings said the company was “aware of the most recent filing” and is “committed to being a responsible, long-term neighbor and partner in Granbury and Hood County.”

“Allegations over sound levels have been previously reviewed, including through a county-commissioned sound study that found our operations are well within applicable legal limits,” the statement reads.

Under state law, any noise exceeding 85 decibels is considered a public nuisance. A 2024 Hood County study also found the crypto mine’s noise compliant with state regulations.

Lakey regularly takes decibel readings at his property. The most recent readings he has taken fall within the legal limit at 73 to 78 decibels, he said, but the noise is still too much for him.

“My house is a log house. People call it a Cracker Barrel because I have rocking chairs, and I have this long, covered front porch,” he said. “We don’t use those hardly anymore at all, because it’s not even fun being outside. It just takes it away.”

He said he and other neighbors met with MARA representatives to ask them to mitigate the crypto mine’s impact. They told him changes would be made, he said, but the noise level hasn’t improved.

MARA has taken steps to reduce the noise. As of 2024, 67% of the site is immersion-cooled, meaning equipment is enveloped in liquid to reduce noise and heat. The company has also added a 24-foot-tall barrier wall around parts of the crypto mine, which the most recent lawsuit alleges did not mitigate noise and instead “has served to amplify and worsen the noise.”

“The closer you are to the sound, the more effective the wall is,” Lakey said. “They’ve got 20 acres worth of machines and that, so it doesn’t help.”

Lakey was one of the leading voices in the fight to incorporate, a measure that 62% of 138 voters opposed in 2025. On MARA’s “Setting the Record Straight On Incorporation” webpage, company representatives said Lakey rents out his home as an Airbnb that has received reviews specifically praising the property for being “quiet.” They also posted an email from his daughter, in which she said her parents were overexaggerating their claims.

Lakey, who said the attacks meant he was “on the right track,” told the Observer that he currently cannot sell the property because of its loss of value.

“It’s disheartening, because you know, when we moved out here, it was everything that we ever wanted,” he said. “This was our forever home. We moved out here and said we’re never leaving again. We’ve got land to enjoy our grandkids out here… It’s like, this is a place where I’m gonna be the greatest granddad ever, because this is where the kids are gonna want to come and hang out. And instead, it’s actually caused a rift in our family.”

Cheryl Swadden is a grassroots organizer who lives across from the power plant and crypto mine. She is also a plaintiff in the lawsuits against MARA Holdings and said the noise from the two facilities has caused her health problems.

“My family doesn’t come over anymore,” Swadden said. “My friends that would come over here and we would train and ride horses together. My friends don’t come over to ride. None of us cook out or grill out outside anymore. I haven’t ridden my horses in over two years. The dizziness and motion sickness is too much.”

She is also concerned about the plant’s emissions and wastewater discharge. The owners of the facility, which is near Lake Granbury and Dinosaur Valley State Park, are seeking to discharge up to 1.24 million gallons of wastewater per day in the Brazos River, according to a recent Texas Commission on Environmental Quality application.

“It’s going right into the Brazos River, which means it’s going through Somerville County, down into Waco, Lake Whitney, on and on,” Swadden said.

Swadden was also one of the organizers of the push for incorporation. She said she will continue to fight for noise mitigation and hopes the legal route will offer relief that previous efforts failed to provide.

“All we can do is try. It’s happening to so many communities all around the United States. We have tried so many things, and we’ve been working at this so hard,” Swadden said. “You can’t just roll over and die.”

The suit represents a larger struggle in one of the 20 smallest counties in Texas by land area. Residents are pushing back against the pattern of data center development and the associated power plants that they feel have upended their once-quiet lives. They have contested permits for new power plants and lobbied county officials for regulatory action. In February, Hood County Commissioners rejected a proposed moratorium on industrial development, which would have halted new crypto mining and data center projects. 

Amy Flynt lives a few hundred yards from the proposed site of Commanche Circle, a planned 2,100-acre data center park. She has been actively advocating against the development, which gained conditional approval in January.

“We came out here for a reason,” Flynt said. “We came out here for the quiet so we could have our peace and quiet and not have to deal with neighbors that are too close. Even though they’re 800 yards from us, the amount of noise coming out of there is going to impact our quality of life out here.”

The house she lives in is the first home she and her husband moved into after college. She will move if the development goes forward, she said, although that may be difficult.

“It’s really upsetting,” she said. “We moved out here, and that was our goal to raise our family here until they graduated, and that’s 100% threatened.”