An attorney representing a proposed bitcoin mining operation has filed an appeal of the county’s denial of a conditional use permit and has served notice it may pursue legal action.
The Pierce County Commission has set a called meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 19, to consider the appeal for the conditional use permit.
The meeting will be held on the second floor of the Southeast Georgia Regional Agriculture Center (SEGARAC), 705 College Avenue, Blackshear.
A public notice on the hearing is included on page 11 of this week’s edition.
Jennifer Ellis Carver, an Alma attorney, filed the notice of appeal Friday, Feb. 21, with Chris Bond, inspector of the Pierce County Planning and Codes Department, County Chairman Neal Bennett, County Manager Raphel Maddox, County Attorney Adam Craft and the Pierce County Commission.
Carver also informed the county she plans to send an ante litem notice, which is a formal notification of an intention to file a lawsuit. County officials said last week they have not yet received the ante litem notice.
Carver is representing LN Energy 8 LLC of Soperton and William “Tony” Waters of Pierce County. LN Energy is the owner of the proposed mining operation. Waters owns the land where the operation is located.
Carver contends the county halted construction operations by LG Energy 8 LLC after they were well underway.
“This project is over two years in the making with my clients having submitted every document, every answer and every check requested by any and all agencies, including massive infrastructure improvements through Satilla REMC,” she said.
Carver said her clients have been completely transparent regarding the construction and recently held demonstrations to allow citizens to come out and see exactly what goes into a bitcoin mining operation.
“It is unfortunate that after nearly two years and over $1 million dollars in improvements to local infrastructure, licenses, permits, fees, etc. this board has decided to interject with the continuation of this project,” Carver said. “Each day this project remains on hold my clients are facing a very tangible lost production cost and that is why we are doing everything we can to bring this matter to a close as quickly as possible, while appeasing everyone involved to reach a copacetic conclusion.” County Attorney Adam Craft declined comment on behalf of the county.
Commissioners voted unanimously at their meeting Feb. 11 to deny a conditional use permit to LN Energy for a proposed bitcoin mining operation located at 1199 Cason Road in the Cason/Rehobeth Community of Pierce County. Eric Su of LN Energy applied for the permit in November, 2024.
The proposed Pierce County operation would have storage facilities to house servers and would include a chiller supplied by a well on the property for cooling purposes.
The property is currently zoned as agriculture/forestry. The conditional use would be required to convert the property to the digital mining operation.
A digital mining operation is part of the cryptocurrency industry. Cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, is a unit of money that is totally electronic and not backed up by government or banks. Digital currency uses a process called mining to secure its network and validate transactions.
Pierce County does not have any digital mining facilities currently.
The Pierce County Planning Commission in January recommended denying the permit and forwarded the item to the county commission for a final decision, as required by the county’s development code. The county commission’s decision to deny the permit came after a capacity crowd of about 150 residents attended and virtually all were opposed to the mining operation.
Concerns such as the location of the site, noise issues, high energy demand, health concerns, water pollution, hazardous waste, declining property values, no economic benefit to Pierce County, proximity to the Rehobeth Baptist Church and hindering the Lord's work were all cited as reasons for opposition to the project.
Addressing concerns about noise from the facility, Waters said last month the chiller would be much quieter than fans used to cool other bitcoin facilities.
Jim Tucker with Satilla Rural Electric Membership Corporation (REMC) said the bitcoin mining operation would use massive amounts of electricity, estimating the power bill for the facility would be approximately $6 million per year. Pierce County would receive sales tax money on the sale of the electricity to the mining operation. He assured those present Satilla REMC had more than enough capacity and capability to serve the community as well as the bitcoin mining operation. He said the bitcoin mining operation would be required to go off line if Satilla experienced peak loads such as with winter weather or a heat wave. Tucker said Satilla REMC did not take a position on whether to approve the conditional use permit, calling it a local decision.
