Bitcoin Mining Trucks Rumble Through West Deer Community

Natalie McElligott is fed up with the hundreds of heavy tri-axle trucks hauling waste coal from a former mine near her West Deer home. She says they have been recklessly driving on Saxonburg Boulevard, creating blind spots and steep drops, and littering the road with debris.

The trucks are transporting tons of waste coal and fly ash, a toxic substance produced by burning waste coal, to fuel powerful computers at Stronghold Digital Mining's Scrubgrass Power Plant in Venango County. The company has been mining Bitcoin since 2018.

McElligott is worried not just for herself but for her neighbors, including an elderly person and a family with five children under 10 years old who play in their yard just feet away from the trucks, which have a history of crashes in the area. PennDOT has even instituted a 10-ton weight limit on Saxonburg Boulevard due to overuse.