Notes, references & transcript: https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/noisy-monster-palaces
Yes data centers are noisy. And the people interested in building the data centers are so often crypto people “pivoting to AI” or attempting to do so.
References:
Lawyers, residents and experts in Clifton Twp. discuss the right ‘cocktail’ for data centers WVIA | By Kat Bolus | WVIA News Published October 1, 2025 at 3:49 PM EDT As for noise, Westhafner said he has never dealt with an ordinance “that tight.” “I think that there are many private residences that would not meet that ordinance,” he said. McHugh asked if he would be able to design a data center to meet Clifton’s noise decimal thresholds. “Possibly not,” he answered. Clifton resident Oksana Froymany asked Westhafner if he would live near a data center campus like Project Gold. “I don’t know how to answer that. I’m not moving,” he said. She asked again. “I know you don’t believe me, but I think data centers can be good neighbors,” he said.
MIT Technology Review - How Bitcoin mining devastated this New York town Between rising electricity rates and soaring climate costs, cryptomining is taking its toll on communities. By Lois Parshley April 18, 2022 As the long winter began to thaw, neighbors noticed a new disturbance: mining servers generate an extreme amount of heat, requiring extensive ventilation to avert shutoffs. Those fans generated a constant, high-frequency whine, McMahon says, “like a small-engine plane getting ready to take off.” It wasn’t just the decibels, but the pitch: “It registers at this weird level, like a toothache that won’t go away.” Carla Brancato lives across the river from Zafra, a crypto-mining and hosting company owned by Plattsburgh resident Ryan Brienza. She says that for several years her condo vibrated from its noise, as if someone were constantly running a vacuum upstairs. Meanwhile, the automated nature of these servers meant that the new mines provided few local jobs. “I’m pro–economic development,” Read says, “but the biggest mine operation has fewer jobs than a new McDonald’s.” Plattsburgh doesn’t have a city income tax, and most miners lease their buildings, meaning they aren’t paying property taxes. (...) Economist Matteo Benetton, a coauthor of the paper and a professor at the Hass School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, says that crypto mining can depress local economies. In places with fixed electricity supplies, operations suck up grid capacity, potentially leading to supply shortages, rationing, and blackouts. Even in places with ample access to power, like upstate New York, mining can crowd out other potential industries that might have employed more people. “While there are private benefits, through the electricity market, there are social costs,” Benetton says. These impacts are now being felt across the country.
Big Tech’s AI Blackmail State and local data center extortion is going national. Pat Garofalo Dec 18, 2024 In response to the rapid growth of data centers in recent years — those large facilities that hold the plumbing necessary for businesses to store and manage their data — residents of many communities have stepped up to voice their concerns about the inevitable downsides of data center construction, which include noise, high energy and water use, and environmental degradation. These protests have occurred across the country, from Virginia to Arizona to Massachusetts. In rare instances, those local residents have been joined by state legislators or other local leaders. More often, though, elected officials roll out the red carpet for Big Tech data centers, lavishing them with public subsidies and other regulatory favors.
WUSA9 - What’s all the data center noise about? Neighbors say Northern Virginia data centers emit a noise they just can’t tune out. We took to the streets and dove in to the science to figure out why. Author: Abby Llorico, Bryce Robinson Published: 7:21 AM EDT April 7, 2023 Updated: 4:20 PM EDT April 7, 2023 Along with an audible hum, the Amazon Web Services Data Center in Manassas and others nearby have also been generating rumbles of complaints from the nearby community. “These data centers are loud, noisy beasts and they are being built too close to residential areas,” said Roger Yackel, who’s been active in the community’s pushback on data centers that they say are being approved without consideration of the nearby homes and schools. “That’s not something that we should have to live with.” John Lyver, a retired NASA analyst, has taken to tracking the noise from the data centers in his neighborhoods. “I’m finding that the noise is far worse than anybody ever figured it was going to be,” he said.
‘People are scared out of their minds’: Weak jobs report shows warning signs for Trump’s economy MSNBC Sep 6, 2025 Donald Trump: “but it will be in a year from now when these monstrous, huge, beautiful places, the palaces of genius. and when they start opening up, you’re seeing, i think you’ll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible.”
Daily Mail - Residents of small Pennsylvania town are being driven mad by huge BITCOIN MINE whose two large cooling towers vibrate and hum more loudly than a waterfall By Dominic Yeatman For Dailymail.Com Published: 14:40 EDT, 13 December 2023 ‘I have a little pond in front of my house where I used to sit and have my coffee at,’ he added. ‘I can’t even enjoy that because I can’t even hear the water over the Bitcoin. It is louder than the waterfall.’ Talen Energy won over locals with promises of hundreds of news jobs and an economic boom in the township of 6,000 when they announced plans for the operation last year. ‘Amazon, Google, all those cloud computing applications, those are the potential clients, customers that we will have in the data center buildings,’ said Dustin Wertheimer, VP and Division CFO Talen Cumulus and Susquehanna Data Center. ‘On the coin mining side, there will be computers again located in those buildings and those computers will run computations that will trigger and generate the issuance of coins.’ The controversial cryptocurrency has been in the news again after a wild ride since the start of December. A rally last week saw it rise above $44,000 to reach its highest level in almost two years - then on Sunday it lost 6.5 percent of its value in just 20 minutes and dipped below $41,000. Global bank Standard Chartered thinks bitcoin could surpass $100,000 before the end of 2024 - yet well-known JP Morgan boss Jamie Dimon said last week that US lawmakers should ‘close it down’. The first 1,500 Bitcoins out of Salem Township were sold for $37.6 million after the 180 megawatt mine was plugged in this summer, but that was little consolation to residents at an angry town hall meeting on Tuesday.
Daily Mail - Residents of small Pennsylvania town are being driven mad by huge BITCOIN MINE whose two large cooling towers vibrate and hum more loudly than a waterfall By Dominic Yeatman For Dailymail.Com Published: 14:40 EDT, 13 December 2023 ‘The gentleman that’s house is the last house on Confers Lane, you could literally go inside his house, put your hand on the wall, and feel the vibration from the fans. it was that bad,’ said Ernest Ashbridge III, vice president of Salem Township board of supervisors. On Tuesday fed-up residents told the power boss they had endured enough of the endless noise.
The New York Times - Their Water Taps Ran Dry When Meta Built Next Door By Eli Tan Visuals by Dustin Chambers Reporting from Newton County, Ga. Published July 14, 2025 Updated July 16, 2025 The hardest part, Ms. Morris said, is that the house now has just one usable bathroom, which they have to share with her adult son Jon, 48, who has Down syndrome. They tried selling the house, with no luck.
I Live 500 Feet From A Bitcoin Mine. My Life Is Hell. More Perfect Union Jul 24, 2025 “It’s a different type of noise pollution. It’s not like truck traffic or anything like this. It’s a special noise. It’s a low frequency noise that is coming from these operations. And it is incessant.” (...) “The last thing we needed was more pressure on this lake. I know I can survive without electricity. I do know that. I can’t survive without water. “ (...) “These ginormous conglomerate corporations are having real impacts. They consume vast quantities of water, especially in Texas.” (...) “Who would buy this place? You have to disclose? My property value has gone down 75%, and that’s according to Hood County Appraisal District. The reality is, my property value is worthless.”
Tennessee Lookout - A billionaire, an AI supercomputer, toxic emissions and a Memphis community that did nothing wrong Memphis’s dealings with Elon Musk provide a textbook example of how the people who contribute the least to environmental harm often suffer the most from it. Ren Brabenec July 7, 2025 The facility is currently operating 33 methane-powered gas turbines to fuel its AI technology despite holding a permit for only 15. The supercomputer facility is located in a poor, predominantly Black Memphis community with historically high rates of pollution-related illness and disproportionate rates of industrial pollutants. The magnitude of the energy draw — and resulting pollution — at Colossus is, well, colossal. According to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), the facility draws enough electricity to power approximately 100,000 homes. Those inputs are alarming, but the outputs are even worse. The facility’s behemoth methane gas turbines increase Memphis’s smog by 30-60% as they belch planet-warming nitrogen oxides and poisonous formaldehyde around the clock, pollutants linked to respiratory and cardiovascular disease.
How Elon Musk is Poisoning Memphis | Ren Brabenec | TMR - The Majority Report w/ Sam Seder Jul 20, 2025 Ren Brabenec joinsto talk about his piece in the Tennessee Lookout that covers Elon Musk’s unpermitted Ai data center that is causing massive environmental damage in Memphis.
Memphis residents erupt at hearing over Musk’s xAI data center More Perfect Union Jun 11, 2025 We went to a public hearing on April 25, where residents testified that they can’t breathe and are getting sicker. “We’ve shown up here today because we’re tired of going in and out of funeral homes... That stops now.”
We Went to the Town Elon Musk Is Poisoning More Perfect Union May 30, 2025 Elon Musk’s massive xAI data center is poisoning Memphis. It’s burning enough gas to power a small city, with no permits and no pollution controls. Residents tell us they can’t breathe and they’re getting sicker.
Musk’s xAI gas turbines: no emission controls, filling Memphis air with smog - David Gerard 14 May 2025 xAI’s environmental consultant, Shannon Lynn, says “there’s rules that say temporary sources can be in place for up to 364 days a year. They are not subject to permitting requirements.” xAI has applied for permits for the first set of turbines. But it won’t install pollution controls unless and until its permits are approved.
“Musk Is Scamming the City of Memphis”: Meet Two Brothers Fighting Colossus, Musk’s xAI Data Center Democracy Now! Apr 25, 2025 We speak with two brothers who are fighting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI over its massive data center in Memphis, Tennessee, used to run its chatbot Grok.
Efficiency and Abundance Lowering costs or shifting them? - Dylan Gyauch-Lewis and Revolving Door Project Apr 14, 2025 It can absolutely slow the building process and add additional costs. But the unspoken tradeoff is that we are more likely to—intentionally or unintentionally—harm and exploit people without it. What happens without these processes can be seen in projects that skirt them; in Memphis, Elon Musk’s xAI data center went ahead and expanded on-site fossil fuel turbines without a permit, and the community is now being exposed to dangerous air pollution and carcinogenic chemicals like formaldehyde.
Data Center Dynamics - Junkyard in Pennsylvania acquired, developer files to develop data center campus One of three new campuses proposed in Lackawanna County August 18, 2025 By Dan Swinhoe The Times-Tribune notes Marzolino is also involved with another, separate data center project down the road from the junkyard, known as Project Gravity. He is also reportedly involved in a newly proposed data center campus a few miles south of the Eynon Jermyn Road projects in Blakely, off Business Route 6 and Terrace Drive. Marzolino and businessman Alpesh “Al” Patel – who owns the Dunmore-based Al’s Quick Stop convenience store chain – propose constructing a four-building data center campus. The pair filed for a rezoning of the land for an AI data center campus with the Blakely Borough planning commission earlier this month. The site could reportedly total 1.5GW, Marzolino told the Times-Tribune. Patel reportedly owns about 44 acres of the site in Blakely, while the Marzolino-affiliated Two Up Realty LLC and Route 6 Land Development Corp. own around 77 acres between them. Marzolino told the Times-Tribune his interest in data centers stems from a Bitcoin mining hobby. After starting to research data centers some three years ago, he is now working with global commercial real estate firm Avison Young and has a team of about 20 people in-house working on finding land, developing, planning, and engineering.
Better Offline - OpenAI Is A Systemic Risk To The Tech Industry April 17, 2025 •
CNBC - Bitcoin miner Core Scientific rides AI from bankruptcy to $6.7 billion partnership in eight months Published Tue, Aug 6 2024 MacKenzie Sigalos For months, publicly traded bitcoin miners have been shifting into the AI infrastructure business because it became a lot less profitable to mine bitcoin after the halving in April. The companies had already spent the time and money decking out data centers across the country that could be retrofitted to serve an entirely new category of customers. But converting to AI isn’t as simple as repurposing existing infrastructure and machines, because requirements are different, as are the needs of the data network. Needham analysts wrote in a report in May that almost all infrastructure that miners currently have would “need to be bulldozed and built from the ground up to accommodate HPC,” or high-performance computing. Core Scientific’s Sullivan was among the mining leaders who attended a closed-door roundtable in June with former President Donald Trump, who recently jumped into the conversation of the convergence of bitcoin mining and AI.
Trump’s ‘Freedom Cities’? A Tech Blueprint to Dismantle the USA The Nerd Reich with Gil Duran Mar 14, 2025 So what’s their endgame and how are these new Trump Freedom cities part of it let’s start here this isn’t your grandfather’s corporate lobbying these billionaires don’t want to just influence government they want to become the government they seek a system that protects their wealth punishes their critics and uses AI and crypto to make their power permanent and having their very own new capitols to drive that power from is part of it here’s how we fight back expose The Playbook most Americans don’t realize this takeover is happening…
