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Greenidge: What’s next after power plant misses deadline to install fish screens on water intake pipe?
The Greenidge Generation power plant missed its September 30th state deadline to install fish screens on its water intake pipe in Seneca Lake and continues to suck in and kill aquatic life in violation of ... more
Greenidge faces liquidity squeeze after heavy borrowing to buy latest bitcoin mining rigs, stock sinks below $2
Shares of Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc. closed below $2 for the first time Friday, as the debt-laden company mired in environmental controversies faces a potential liquidity crisis. The falling market price of Bitcoin — its ... more
DOH skips deadlines in law requiring regulations to limit PFAS in drinking water as EPA sounds alarm about risks
The state Department of Health continues to ignore its June 19 legal deadline for announcing draft regulations for limiting PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ in public drinking water even after federal regulators issued dire new warnings about ... more
Seneca, Skaneateles lakes hit with first toxic blooms of summer; plans seek to cut farming phosphorus
Widespread outbreaks of toxic cyanobacteria were reported across the Finger Lakes this week, including the first so-called harmful algal blooms (HABs) of the season on Seneca and Skaneateles lakes. A Cayuga Lake bloom south of ... more
Will Greenidge face any consequences for missing October 1 deadline to install screens on water intake pipe?
For more than five years, Greenidge Generation has skirted a federal law that requires power plants to install screens on their cooling water intake pipes to protect aquatic life. Now the company has fallen far ... more
Feds cite Cargill for ‘aggravated conduct’ in roof collapse that killed two, led to closure of third largest salt mine in US
Federal regulators have cited Cargill Deicing Technologies for “aggravated conduct constituting more than ordinary negligence” in the December 2020 roof collapse that killed two miners at its Avery Island, La., salt mine. Cargill, operator of ... more
Plans to build concrete plant on border of Schuyler, Yates counties dead after silo deemed ‘too tall’
Plans to build a concrete batching plant on agricultural land on the border of Yates and Schuyler counties were unexpectedly derailed Tuesday because the project’s proposed 59-foot cement silo would be too tall. “The application ... more
Proposed concrete plant between Seneca and Keuka lakes sparks fear: Will there be enough water for everyone?
Plans to build a concrete batching plant on five acres zoned for agriculture on the Yates/Schuyler county line is triggering local concerns about water use, dust, noise and truck traffic. Custom-Mix Concrete’s batching plant immediately ... more
Cayuga Lake leads state in early season HABs: Seneca, Owasco, Canandaigua, Keuka are toxin-free so far
Once again this summer, Cayuga Lake has taken the early-season lead statewide in reported harmful algal blooms (HABs), according to an interactive map maintained by the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Tests showed that the ... more
Greenidge contractor told to remove equipment from state boat launch site at Severne Point after DEC decision
Greenidge Generation’s bid to quietly use a state-run fishing and boat launching facility on Seneca Lake as an industrial staging area came to a halt today when a contractor’s temporary permit expired. BIDCO Marine Group ... more
DEC grants permit to Cayuta waste facility while effectively denying FOIL request for key docs
Twenty-one months after a plan to build and operate a waste transfer station on the border of Schuyler and Tompkins counties stirred intense local controversy, the state Department of Environmental Conservation has quietly awarded the ... more
DEC says its ‘investigating’ as Greenidge appears to create staging area for major, new construction project after permit denial
A day after the state Department of Environmental Conservation denied Greenidge Generation an air permit for its power plant in Dresden, contractors for the company appear to be using a DEC boat launch as a ... more
Greenidge’s bitcoin operation on Seneca Lake loses bid for new air permit, jeopardizing its future
The state Department of Environmental Conservation today denied Greenidge Generation LLC’s application to renew its Title V air permit, jeopardizing the future operation of the plant’s controversial Bitcoin mining operation. “The gas-fired facility’s continued operations ... more
Crypto moratorium approved after surprising early-morning NYS Senate vote; industry lobbying falls short
The New York State Legislature early today passed a two-year moratorium on certain cryptocurrency mining that would halt permits to convert old fossil-fuel power plants into crypto operations. The bill (A7389/S6486) had been considered “dead” as recently ... more
Are proposed state PFAS regulations a ‘grand leap forward’ or an example of ‘excessive regulatory caution’?
New York is poised to take what one senior state official called “a grand leap forward” in regulating 23 PFAS-class chemicals in all public drinking water systems by early Fall. An advisory panel on Monday ... more
DEC needed months to review public comments that ran 100-to-1 against Greenidge’s bitcoin operation
Nearly 4,000 public comments on Greenidge Generation’s bid to renew a state air emissions permit for its Bitcoin mining operation ran nearly 100-to-1 negative last Fall, according to a recent analysis by researchers from Cornell ... more
Closer look at how state regulators punted a major decision on bitcoin mining in the Finger Lakes and New York
Facing a major test on how the state plans to enforce its ambitious 2019 climate change law, state regulators on Thursday delayed for the second time a ruling on an air permit for a Bitcoin ... more
Seneca Meadows official tells Ulster County that landfill won’t close in 2025 despite local law
The top official at Seneca Meadows Inc. assured public officials in Ulster County last week that SMI would not be shutting down by Dec. 31, 2025 despite a local law that requires that closing date ... more
Hochul could follow fracking precedent in setting crypto mining moratorium in New York
Gov. Kathy Hochul has a clear legal path to establish a moratorium on permits for cryptocurrency mining operations like Greenidge Generation’s plant in Dresden, according to a report issued today by Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for ... more
