Bulls Gap is a small community of just a few hundred people situated on rolling farmland in Hawkins County. A former market town revolving around a vital rail junction, today Bulls Gap is mostly known for its peaceful farmsteads and quiet lifestyle.
But locals say the peace was disrupted for those who live along State Route 66 last year when a $15 million fractionation plant owned by the NGL Supply Company opened up next door. It separates natural gas into pure ethane, propane and butane products, then sells them to the Holston Electric Company to produce electricity for locals.
With it came a pipe towering 45-feet over the community, topped by a brilliant orange flame that blazes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It’s a gas flare, constantly burning off excess ethane gas that is unfit to be sold to Holston Electric. It’s made life for those who live along this once-quiet road difficult.
“Things have just been growing and changing,” said Cynthia Trentham, who has lived on a farm across the street all her life. “It's really disrupted the whole community since it got here.”
Trentham’s husband, Mike, drives cattle on their farm. He says the flame isn’t just loud and distracting – it bothers their animals.
“In the past … I had no trouble loading calves to take them to market,” he said. “Since the flame came, I have a heck of a time getting the calves in the barn on the trailer. They are very, very, very skittish.”
The Trenthams and their neighbors put up blackout curtains to shield their windows from the light generated by the flare at night. Life went on this way for months.
Then, two months ago, neighbors learned Kentucky-based cryptomining startup ExoticRidge was finalizing plans to build a propane-fueled bitcoin mine on land leased from NGL.
“A lot of us didn't really understand,” Cynthia said. “They would say, ‘mining.’ Are they going to dig for something? You know? What are they doing?”
Cryptomining operations rely on this type of confusion in rural communities. Multiple bitcoin miners have attempted to establish a presence in Tennessee in recent years, including a recent proposal in the town of Mountain City that was kept quiet by local government, outraging locals.
These companies often look for small, rural areas with cheap land and plentiful energy – places like Bulls Gap and Mountain City – and they frequently don’t seek approval from local governments or neighbors.
Cyndie Roberson is a member of the National Coalition against Cryptomining, an advocacy group with a presence in 21 states. After retiring to her dream home in North Carolina a few years ago, a bitcoin mine moved in, which she says disrupted the peace and quiet of their rural community. She moved away to Georgia – where it almost happened again. So she decided to get involved.
“People who live by crypto mines, they almost feel like they're losing their mind,” said Roberson, who described a consistent low frequency, high-decibel sound from facilities that run power-hungry computers. “Inside their house, they feel vibration and their windows rattle or plates rattle, because it's this noise that is so strong and irritating. And it's pretty much specific to a crypto mine.”
Roberson believes the proposed development in Bulls Gap to be one of the worst because it involves on-site generation. According to construction permit applications filed with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the mine would be powered by two 40-foot CAT natural gas generators which will burn propane and ethane to generate electricity for the mine’s energy-intensive operations.
“So you get all the pollution, all the noise, all the awfulness of living directly next door to an unsanctioned power plant, and you get a crypto mine,” Roberson said. “So that's why I say it's especially awful.”
ExoticRidge insists their bitcoin mine in Bulls Gap won’t be noisy or disruptive to the community. At a September meeting of the Hawkins County commission, in an effort to persuade local leaders, they turned on a single mining rig and let it run – quietly – for locals to hear.
The Trenthams weren’t convinced. Cynthia says the single rig at the county commission doesn’t compare to a full bitcoin mine operation, which will include cooling fans, generators and other moving parts with the potential to generate large amounts of noise. She compares their efforts at persuasion to “smoke and mirrors.”
Julie Atkins, a school teacher with two young kids of her own, lives across the street from the proposed development. She also doesn’t trust ExoticRidge to live up to their promises.
“It would be like standing next to a running motorcycle while you're trying to sleep, while you're trying to think, while you're eating,” Atkins said. “For a growing body and a growing mind of a child, that would be a very large concern for me, as well as it should be for everyone.”
ExoticRidge has made an even greater promise to the community: They claimed that by buying excess ethane from NGL’s fractionation plant, they’ll completely eliminate the obtrusive gas flare. Still, community members remain skeptical.
“They wanted to … sweet talk the community,” Atkins said. “And say, ‘hey, this is an issue that you guys are dealing with. Let us come in. Let us harness that flame. Let us use that energy and put it towards something.’ However, they're outsiders. They're not from the community. They're actually not from our state at all.”
And the idea that ExoticRidge alone would be responsible for eliminating the gas flare is inaccurate. Owners of the fractionation plant say they always planned to eliminate the ethane flare by adding new generators next year.
“We’ll produce that clean power at a low cost for the community, and work the flare down,” said NGL President Webster Monday. “If we have excess ethane and ExoticRidge has a viable project that fits in with the community … then we could look to send some ethane their way.”
Monday clarified ExoticRidge would play a role in eliminating the flare, but sales of ethane to the bitcoin miner will be low compared to the electric company.
“If a unit goes down for some unplanned type maintenance, to have [ExoticRidge] as a swing certainly would keep it from going to flare during periods of unplanned or planned maintenance that need to happen,” he said.
Within days of learning about the bitcoin miner’s plans to move into town, neighbors in Bulls Gap mobilized. County leaders received a flurry of calls from locals opposing the development. Petitions were distributed and signed ahead of the County Commission meeting on Sept. 22 calling for a moratorium to be placed on all bitcoin mine development.
It worked – at first. Commissioners approved a resolution restricting all cryptomining developments in the county by a 10-2 vote, drawing shouts of "thank you" and applause from the public audience. However, some have questioned whether the resolution aligns with the Tennessee County Power Act, casting doubt on the effectiveness of such a measure. It leaves locals worried about the future.
“I hate to say this, but I'm not extremely confident that it's entirely out of the question that it will move here,” Atkins said. “I don't think it's going to happen today, but I pray that it doesn't happen even a decade from now.”
WUOT News reached ExoticRidge CEO Will Daugherty for this story. He said, “We look forward to working with local leaders on a path forward,” and declined to provide additional comment.
Multiple representatives of the Hawkins County government were contacted, but none wished to provide a comment. The status of the development remains unclear.
