West Deer Grapples with Pollution and Reckless Trucks from Bitcoin Mining Operation

Natalie McElligott has had it up to here with the hundreds of heavy tri-axle trucks hauling waste coal from a former mine near her West Deer home. The trucks, which have been driving recklessly and littering the area with debris, are transporting tons of waste coal and fly ash, a toxic byproduct of burning waste coal, to Stronghold Digital Mining's Scrubgrass Power Plant in Venango County.

The 21st-century operation is creating plenty of 20th-century industrial pollution and damage. The narrow two-lane road where McElligott lives, Saxonburg Boulevard, has a 10-ton weight limit, but residents say the trucks are often overloaded with coal. This month, PennDOT instituted the weight limit after discovering that the road was cracking and sinking from overuse.

A resident of Little Deer Creek Road, Mark Shubert, worked with fly ash during his three decades in the construction industry and recognized it as a hazardous material accumulating on homes. He has had to regularly clean the exterior of his house since the trucks started hauling the toxic byproduct.