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Murphy – It took months, but Cherokee County is now protected against high-impact industries including crypto mines – at least for the time being.
The Cherokee County Board of Commissioners approved a one-year moratorium banning high-impact facilities from locating in Cherokee County, or if they are already here, preventing them from expanding.
The board of commissioners voted unanimously to impose the moratorium, effective at 6:47 p.m. Monday. Although the moratorium expires in a year, it will give the Cherokee County Planning Board (aka commissioners) time to enact permanent legislation protecting the county against things like crypto mines and nuclear waste dumps.
Commissioner Ben Adams, who is also chairman of the planning board, compiled the Cherokee County Comprehensive Plan over the past few months and wrote some of the content.
He said the moratorium will buy the county time to put together an ordinance to fix the problem permanently.
Callie Moore is western regional director for MountainTrue, a nonprofit that monitors water quality in western North Carolina and advocates for clean water and a healthy environment.
She applauded the progress. saying it gives property owners peace of mind that their investments won’t be harmed by intrusive industries locating nearby.
As the first crypto mines appeared in Cherokee County, the county was ill-equipped to do anything about it. That put local leaders squarely in the sights of angry constituents demanding swift action.
Cherokee County’s famous opposition to any and all zoning did it no favors. The county first tried to address the problem with a noise ordinance, but that was met by a loud public outcry.
The next option was going the land use route, a multi-step process that is not yet complete. The board of commissioners first had to establish a planning board, a role that the board took on, naming Adams as the chairman.
The next step was to develop a comprehensive plan – in essence, a collection of existing ordinances and policies with additional information thrown in. In time, the comprehensive plan will encompass the ordinance regulating high-impact industries, but in the short term, it enables the county to impose moratoriums.
The public hearing and vote on the moratorium was what took place Monday, so the next step is for the planning board to work on a permanent ordinance for high-impact industries.
There are at least three crypto mines in Cherokee County – in Marble, Murphy and Ranger. Only the Marble crypto plant is enclosed, whereas noise from the Harshaw Road facility has been compared to a jet engine and can be heard for miles around.
Core Scientific has invested more than $65 million at its Marble site since acquiring it in 2017. It employs more than 30 full-time employees there with an average annual wage of $57,926, according to Carol Haines, senior vice president at the company.
She called the moratorium “unnecessarily harmful to our lawful business and which we believe is vague and over broad.” She said the moratorium will prevent key improvements necessary to maintain safety and operations.
Crypto and data mining are industries in their infancy, with no telling what the future holds. The facilities require huge amounts of electricity to run their computers and the cooling systems necessary to keep the computers running.
With the advent of artificial intelligence, it creates a whole new threat. According to published reports, Microsoft needs so much power to train AI that it is considering small nuclear reactors to meet the demand.
