Ala. (WAFF) – Despite constant pushback and a moratorium, plans to build a <a href="https://cryptoz7.com/<a href="https://cryptoz7.com/bitcoin-price-prediction-can-bitcoin-reach-1-million/” title=”Bitcoin Price Prediction: Can Bitcoin Reach $1 Million?”>bitcoin-7-8m-etf-net-inflow-hits-on-aug-11/” title=”Bitcoin: $7.8M ETF Net Inflow Hits on Aug 11″>Bitcoin mining center are moving forward
VoltCore has begun utility work at the site of a planned Bitcoin mining center in Somerville, with flags placed in yards along Union Road marking routes for water, gas, and AT&T service lines — even as a county moratorium remains in place.
Morgan County Commission Chairman Ray Long told WAFF 48 the year-long moratorium, put in place in June, was intended to send a message to VoltCore but carries no enforcement power.
Long said Morgan County has no legal authority to stop the project.
Exactly two months ago, VoltCore representatives visited Somerville to notify nearby homeowners of their plans. Since then, they’ve asked all of them to grant their easement request to conduct utility work, but none have said yes.
The company’s last option was to go to the county engineer and try to run its utility lines through the county’s right of way. Chairman Long said they didn’t have any power to say no to that either.
“We can’t keep them from doing anything right now because there’s no laws at all in Morgan County in rural areas,” Long said. “There’s no zoning, there’s none of that, so we really don’t have anything to stand on other than what we can say is, ‘We really wish you wouldn’t do it.’”
Somerville homeowner Carlee Carlton not only does this project pose a threat to their livelihoods, but it also creates a danger to their environment.
Considering that the county cannot help, she said they plan to raise money to hire a lawyer and fund an environmental study to document potential harm from the Bitcoin mining center.
“As you can see this is a big ‘ol pasture. And if we start moving a ton of dirt as this sits low, it could potentially affect flood plains, not to mention there’s endangered species in our area,” Carlton said. “And we really want to know how that’s going to affect the beautiful Alabama that we call home before they just come in and tear it up and we don’t ever get it back.”
Carlton also pushed back on the company’s approach to the community.
“It’s deeply un-American for a company to come in and say, ‘We don’t care about the way your property looks. We don’t care about the way your life goes,’” Carlton said. “And to come in and just do it anyway for their own profitable gain.”
The homeowners are also going to plan protests in the coming weeks. Long says outside of legal action, he’s not sure what else these residents can do.
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