YATES COUNTY, NY (WENY) -- Several organizations have filed a lawsuit against the Town of Torrey in Yates County, along with Greenidge Generation, LLC over the town's recent approval of a site plan for an expanded Bitcoin mining operation at a facility on Seneca Lake. 

Among the petitioners in the lawsuit are the Sierra Club, Seneca Lake Guardian, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, and a number of individuals. They are filing the suit to appeal the town of Torrey's decision approving the construction and expansion of Greenidge's data mining operation. 

The lawsuit alleges the approval violated state laws, including the New York State Environmental Review Act, Environmental Conservation Law (SEQRA) AND General Municipal Law. 

Greenidge Generation LLC is a subsidiary of Atlas Holdings, LLC, and is a bitcoin data mining power plant located at 590 Plant Road in Dresden, Yates County, located next to the Keuka Lake Outlet. According to its website, Greenidge "provides world-class mining facilities, management, and support for the colocation of cryptocurrency mining equipment." 

Greenidge applied to expand its facility, including on-site improvements and the construction of four new buildings and associated equipment for its data processing operations. The existing 65,000 square foot facility currently houses 7,000 bitcoin miners, according to an article on Bitcoin's website. 

During a Torrey Town Planning Board meeting on November 16th, planning board members voted three to one to finalize a Conditioned Negative Declaration on the Greenidge project. According to the planning board minutes, board members indicated the comment forms submitted to the planning board "do not raise any issues that identify potentially significant environmental impacts that were not considered by the Planning Board during its SEQRA review or provide substantive information regarding the inadequacy of the proposed mitigation measures."

According to the lawsuit, the facility will require large amounts of energy, which will be generated by the facility itself, running at maximum capacity, and requiring the facility to require a greater amount of water intake and super heated water discharge into the Keuka Lake outfall, which drains into Seneca Lake. The suit says 159,897,000 gallons of water will be withdrawn from Seneca Lake daily for cooling, and 190,000,000 gallons of superheated water will be discharged daily.

The suit claims this will cause both entrapment of fish from Seneca Lake, along with fish larvae, affecting the fish population within the lake. It goes on to say the Torrey Planning Board did not identify all areas of environmental concern, or other areas of identified concern, before finalizing the Conditioned Negative Declaration.

The lawsuit is requesting the court void the site plan approval given by the town of Torrey planning board, and issue an injunction against any construction or operation of the bitcoin mining data facility until the planning board and the town of Torrey comply with all New  York State and municipal laws.

A complete copy of the lawsuit can be read below, in PDF format.