Starkville Rejects Bitcoin Mining Facility Over Transparency Concerns
A proposed bitcoin mining facility in Starkville, Mississippi has been rejected by the Planning and Zoning Commission. The facility, which would have operated on Industrial Park Road, needed a special exemption to develop due to its type not being specifically identified in the Unified Development Code.
The commission recommended rejecting the exemption after project representatives failed to address unknowns and provide missing information from the application. Jeremiah Dumas, Ward 6 commissioner, stated that he had never seen an applicant so unprepared for a contentious issue like this.
Project representative Mandy Jiang explained that the facility's cooling system would require up to 50 gallons of water per minute, filling an Olympic-size swimming pool every nine days. However, Starkville Utilities manager Edward Kemp noted that the proposed water usage is comparable to similar industrial uses in the city.