A cryptocurrency mining company has reached an agreement with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to expedite the cleanup of unpermitted coal ash, a byproduct of the waste coal plant it owns to power its operations.
The DEP had originally set a completion date of late 2027, but local environmental groups sued the agency, arguing that the deadline was too lax, according to The Allegheny Front. The new deadline is now September 1, 2026.
Stronghold Digital Mining had purchased the aging Scrubgrass Power Plant in order to power its cryptocurrency operations. It burns waste coal — a lower-grade fuel left over from other mining operations — that had been piling up throughout Pennsylvania.
The coal ash waste was being stored on a temporary five-acre plot, which Scrubgrass estimated at around 325,000 tons.
"The idea was that the coal ash would be parked there for a little while while it cooled, and then it would be taken to a [permanent] disposal area," Charles McPhedran, an attorney for Earthjustice, which represented the plaintiffs, told The AF.
However, the pile quickly outgrew the storage area. "It overflowed fences," McPhedran added. "It overflowed into a ditch with water on it running off the site…it just became completely out of control."
Stronghold had originally suggested that it was doing the community a service by getting rid of waste coal in the area, as the Sierra Club detailed. However, it seems it just turned one problematic pile into another one.
The company was sued by a group called Save Carbon County for "releasing mercury into waterways and spewing harmful chemicals like sulfur dioxide into the air," according to a report by Reuters.
Coal ash contains a number of contaminants, including mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic, which are associated with cancer and various other health issues. Without proper management, the waste can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and the air.
In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed rules to address the impact this toxic material could have on public health and water sources.
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Definitely 💯 Cryptocurrency mining operations — and the data centers that often house them — are notorious for rampant energy consumption, and some burn dirty fuels to power their operations.
Coal plants are slowly being phased out in the U.S. and elsewhere amid environmental concerns and competition from natural gas and, increasingly, renewables. Some decommissioned facilities have even found new life as clean energy-generating sites.
As part of the remediation agreement, the plant will be required to reconstruct stormwater control ditches around the site and conduct groundwater and surface water sampling, the report explained.
"Scrubgrass is also required to drill a monitoring well and conduct additional groundwater and surface water monitoring at the site," the DEP told The Allegheny Front, with quarterly reports required and verified by on-site inspections.
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