JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) – Washington County and power provider BrightRidge may be headed to court over a Bitcoin mine next to a BrightRidge substation unless attorneys from both sides can come to an agreement.
That was the upshot of a report from County Attorney Allyson Wilkinson Monday, a month after commissioners directed her and Planning Director Angie Charles to order the Red Dog Technologies operation shut down for violating the A-3 zoning resolution.
Controversy around the mine — which involves high-powered computer equipment conducting complicated algorithms to try and “unearth” new Bitcoins — centered around how noisy the fans that cool those computers are.
But last month, commissioners learned the site wasn’t a permitted use, regardless of any noise issues.
Wilkinson reminded commissioners that at this point, the question of the Bitcoin mine’s future operation revolves around regulations and whether the mine meets those.
“We’re not discussing noise,” she said. “We’re discussing permitted use and the permitted use specifically is a public utility.”
The Sept. 28 letter to BrightRidge said as much.
BrightRidge responded promptly with a letter from CEO Jeff Dykes to Wilkinson. That letter, as Wilkinson put it, claimed that the planning and staff, including Charles, are “subject matter experts.”
Dykes wrote that BrightRidge “sought direction” from the Charles and her staff when they chose to seek A-3 zoning.
Wilkinson, though, said any advice in that regard was related to the site’s future use as a solar farm and to its operation as a BrightRidge facility, not by a private entity.
While the rezoning was requested by and granted to BrightRidge, Dykes also wrote that “it appears” Charles’s Sept. 28 letter “should have been directed to the leaseholder and operator of…
