Oklahoma, El Reno city asserts that none of the costs related to the water leak at the property will be passed on to citizens.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works .
According to the source report, the Athlon Blockchain LLC-owned data center shouldn’t even have been operating, as the city issued it a Stop Work Order in 2023 due to “multiple fire and life safety code violations as well as the expiration of the building and electrical permits that had previously been issued.” The city asserts that none of the costs related to the water leak at the property will be passed on to citizens, according to the source.
We don’t know whether the Bitcoin mining data center development went ahead despite the Stop Work Order in 2023 due to ignorance or a devil-may-care attitude toward regulation. Koco reports that the owner of the property was given until the end of 2023 to comply with safety codes and obtain new permits, while construction should have been put on hold. Now it is believed that the firm building the facility set up the data center and began operations without any further consultation with the city. Perhaps the owners thought they could sidestep the Stop Work Order by housing the data center in an array of shipping containers.
Clearly, regulators should check that codes, directives, and ordinances are obeyed. This incident shows a disastrous leak from an insufficiently policed operator with serious repercussions for local citizens. Thus, the city has now committed to routinely reviewing compliance. As for the waste and costs involved in this case, a statement on behalf of the city says it is “preparing to take the necessary legal actions to recoup all costs and expenses related to the water leak from the property owner, including city resources expended in locating and addressing the leak.”
There has been a lot of controversy recently regarding data center usage of water . Concerns have been heightened due to widespread drought conditions in the Northern Hemisphere this summer.
Meta data center water discharges suspended after contaminating the city's reclamation water supply with bacterium
Denver data center continuously waters its lawn even after city announced drought restrictions, enraging residents
Project Jupiter AI data center build raises concerns about water usage in rural New Mexico desert
Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News , or add us as a preferred source , to get our latest news, analysis, & reviews in your feeds.
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/data-centers/bitcoin-mining-data-center-condemned-after-leaking-3-million-gallons-of-water-and-forcing-school-closures-facility-operated-for-years-under-a-city-stop-work-order#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
- Why Scaling AI Compute Performance Requires a New Power Architecture
- Get this stunning MSI RTX 5060 Ti 16G deal at Walmart for $200 less than anywhere else — only $569.99 for the solid mid-range Shadow 2x OC Plus gaming GPU is a
- NVIDIA CEO Tops Glassdoor’s 2026 List of Best CEOs
- ‘World’s first fully transparent video game console’ is on its way to Kickstarter — Arduview handheld’s shell, PCB, and display are all transparent
- Lenovo’s IdeaPad Vibe laptops stand out with seven colors and swappable keycaps – 14,15-inch models with Snapdragon X and AMD AI 400 CPUs to start at $699
Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.