Looking for the studies and precedents behind our concerns? Every study, government report, and other town's story — on rates, noise, health, and emissions — is gathered on our Studies fact sheet →, each labeled by how solidly we've verified it. This page is the local Massena record: the meetings, the paper trail, and the site's own environmental facts.
A. How the June 25 meeting was noticed — the document trail
This is the single most concrete thing we can show. It comes straight from the town's own website — its Agenda Center and the RSS feed that timestamps every posting.
The two agenda versions, posted about 90 minutes apart on June 24, 2026:
| When it was posted (RSS timestamp) | What the PDF said | Room | What's wrong |
|---|---|---|---|
| June 24, 8:18:47 AM (RSS item 1220) | "AGENDA OF THE REGULAR MEETING, THURSDAY, JUNE 26 2026" | none listed | Wrong date — June 26 was a Friday. Anyone relying on it targets the wrong day. |
| June 24, 9:48:50 AM (RSS item 1218) | "THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2026" — corrected | Room 30 added | The quiet fix, about 90 minutes later. No louder re-notice that we could find. |
Source: both agenda PDFs and the RSS pubDate timestamps, massena.us Agenda Center — preserved June 26, 2026.
The agenda text itself (verbatim, from the corrected June 25 version — typos preserved):
MASSENA TOWN PLANNING BOARD — TOWN HALL, MASSENA N.Y. — 5:00 PM Room 30
AGENDA OF THE REGULAR MEETING, THURSDAY, JUNE 25, 2026
…
Presubmission for NYDIG
1. Applicate to build data center at the old Reynolds plant
2. Discuss consultants needed
3. Discuss lead agency
The substance — a 635 MW data center moving to consultants and a lead agency — lived only inside that PDF, not as searchable text on the web page. That is a big part of why it was so easy to miss.
And the meeting it replaced: the June 18 Planning Board meeting was canceled, but per the RSS feed that cancellation wasn't posted until June 22, 1:21:56 PM (RSS item 1217). So the public's real notice window on the rescheduled meeting was about 31 hours, PDF-only, and at first mis-dated.
B. What was said about the data center — the official record, verbatim
From the May 21, 2026 Planning Board minutes (the company's presentation)
These are the company's own statements to the board. We quote them so neighbors can hold the company to its word — and so the environmental review can verify them.
The site & history
"Operating in Massena since 2017; 60 employees… Proposal to expand and modernize an existing data center campus at 182 & 194 County Road 45 (former Alcoa East / Reynolds site)."
The company says — May 21, 2026 minutes
Power
"No new generation required; reallocating existing approved capacity (435 MW approved, 200 MW pending)." … "No discounted power rates. Paying full market rates."
The company says — May 21, 2026 minutes
Jobs & taxes
"Employee count to increase to 200; 2,000 construction jobs projected over 18-24 months. Tax contributions expected to increase 5x."
The company says — May 21, 2026 minutes
In June 2018, Coinmint, the site's prior operator, projected more than 150 Massena jobs within 18 months. WWNY reported 65 employees in 2020. The current NCCS project site and the company's 2026 presentation put today's workforce at about 60.
NCCS says the earlier projection assumed access to 435 MW and that the operation received about 235 MW. That is the company's explanation. Even on those numbers, the operation received more than half the expected power while delivering roughly two-fifths of the projected jobs.
Massena is now being asked to consider a 635-MW operation, as many as 2,000 construction jobs over 18 to 24 months, and another projection of 200 employees. The 2,000 figure covers the construction period. The company gives 200 as the operating workforce. The power explanation does not answer the scale of the construction or the environmental questions raised by building on contaminated former-smelter land beside a federal river cleanup.
Plattsburgh gives us another comparison. The Associated Press reported that Coinmint's two mines used about 10% of the city's 104-MW low-cost-power allocation while employing 20 people or fewer. When Motherboard asked Coinmint for a full-time total, the company would not provide one and pointed to contractors instead.
Company claim — Coinmint's June 2018 announcement · Reported — WWNY, August 2020 · Company claim — current NCCS Massena project page · Reported, including NCCS response — North Country This Week, May 2026 · Reported — Associated Press, April 2018 and Motherboard, March 2018.
Water & cooling
"Transitioned from open-loop to closed-loop cooling system… no water withdrawal/discharge from/to St. Lawrence River. Cooling system uses <4,000 gallons in a closed loop with glycol mix… They will be bringing water in from an approved outside party to fill up cooling tanks."
The company says — May 21, 2026 minutes
Backup generators
"Backup generators used for emergency situations, were reduced from 316 to 115; run only for maintenance (1 hr/month each) or emergencies (max 4 days/year)."
The company says — May 21, 2026 minutes
In the company's own words, it says it reduced them from 316 to 115 backup generators. Even after that reduction, the plan is 115 backup generators.
Noise
"Comprehensive studies show 40 dB at nearest residences (comparable to a refrigerator hum). Additional sound barriers and natural attenuation planned."
The company says — May 21, 2026 minutes
40 dB is already at the threshold where the WHO says nighttime noise begins to harm health — see the independent comparison (North Tonawanda, where a comparable crypto facility exceeded the city's 50 dB night limit every night) in section C below.
The review it expects
"Subject to extensive state and federal review (SEQR, DOT, DEC, Army Corps, SHPO, tribal agencies)." … "Public hearing to be scheduled; notifications via town website, local paper, and Facebook."
The company says — a commitment we can hold them to.
The board's own framing that night
"Vance announced that there would NOT be any vote on project. It was also announced that there was not even a formal site plan submission yet…"
From the record — May 21, 2026 minutes
From the June 25, 2026 agenda
The project advanced from "presentation only" (May 21) to "discuss consultants needed" and "discuss lead agency" (June 25) — it started moving through the machinery, even though no hearing had yet been scheduled.
C. Environmental facts — each with its source
| Fact | What it is | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Contaminated ground | The uplands carry PCBs, PAHs, dioxins, furans, cyanide, fluoride, and metals, capped and contained in place beside a monitored river-sediment cap. This is contaminated former-smelter land beside a federal river cleanup — not a listed NPL Superfund site. | EPA Region 2 records (preserved) |
| Noise (measured elsewhere) | At a comparable crypto-mining facility in North Tonawanda, NY (Digihost / DigiPower X), the police chief's two-week study found it exceeded the city's 50 dB nighttime noise limit every night — drawing four citations in July 2024 — after which the city passed a two-year moratorium on new crypto mining. WHO guidelines put the onset of nighttime health harm at around 40 dB. (A comparison, not a Massena measurement.) | Lockport Journal — 50 dB limit & 4 citations; Government Technology — 2-year city moratorium; WHO Night Noise Guidelines for Europe (2009) — 40 dB Lnight |
| Electric rates — municipal power at risk (precedent) | Massena runs on cheap, town-owned power: Massena Electric Department (MED) is one of only 47 municipal utilities in New York, buys locked-in low-cost NYPA hydropower, and its rates rank in the lowest 10% nationally — this is not a "one shared statewide grid, everyone's bill goes up" story. That's exactly the kind of fixed, cheap public-power supply Plattsburgh, NY had before a crypto operation scaled up there, ate into the cheap allocation, and pushed the city over quota — residents' bills rose as much as 50%, and Plattsburgh became the first U.S. city to pause crypto mining. It's the same reasoning behind Gov. Hochul's PSC "Ratepayer Protection Plan" (data centers must cover their own grid-upgrade costs so regular ratepayers aren't subsidizing them) and the pending moratorium bill (S10642/A11560), which would put large (20+ MW) data centers in their own electric-rate class for the same reason. Nationally, data centers are trending toward roughly 12% of U.S. electricity by 2028, and 78% of Americans say they're concerned data centers will raise their own bills. | massena.us — Electric Department & Massena Electric FAQ (municipal, NYPA hydropower); Forbes (Plattsburgh, 2018); governor.ny.gov (Ratepayer Protection Plan); nysenate.gov (S10642); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Consumer Reports (Nov 2025 survey) |
| Air emissions (equity point) | A peer-reviewed model traced this facility's grid-driven PM2.5 pollution as far as Staten Island (about 100 miles away). The honest framing is emissions exported downstate — not "poison Massena's air." | Record — Nature Communications, 2025 |
| River / cleanup standing | The St. Lawrence River Area of Concern at Massena/Akwesasne is co-managed by NYS DEC and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe (2020 agreement); its boundary reaches the Massena water intake; six Beneficial Use Impairments remain unresolved. | Record — NYS DEC / SRMT |
| The $19.4M settlement | Alcoa paid a $19.4 million natural-resource-damages settlement for contamination that harmed Mohawk cultural and fishing uses; fish-consumption advisories date to 1984. | Record — NOAA |
D. Timeline
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Bitcoin / data operation begins on the site (formerly Coinmint). | Company says — May 21 minutes |
| Jan 14, 2026 | Town posts a proposed local law adding "Data Centers" as a site-plan use in the General Industrial District. | Record — massena.us |
| May 21, 2026 | NYDIG / NCCS presents to the Planning Board. No vote, no site plan yet; chair says a public hearing will come later. | Record — minutes + NCPR |
| June 4, 2026 | Statewide 1-year data-center moratorium passes both houses of the Legislature; awaits the Governor's signature. Not yet law. | Record |
| June 18, 2026 | Planning Board meeting canceled (cancellation not posted until June 22). | Record — RSS |
| June 24, 2026 | June 25 agenda posted with the wrong date ("June 26"), then quietly corrected about 90 minutes later (Room 30 added). | Record — RSS + PDFs |
| June 25, 2026 | Planning Board takes up the project — the official application submission; no NYDIG representative attends. Board votes 4–0 (one abstention) to refer to the ZBA whether data centers are permitted in an Industrial zone, and starts the lead-agency process. Chair Vance Fleury states the Town Board is working on code revisions to the Industrial Zone definitions; Councilman Sam Carbone confirms. A $100,000 NYDIG escrow for consultant fees and a host community agreement ("must be completed prior to planning board vote") are recorded. By one resident's account, about 11 people attended. | Record — town minutes + agenda; turnout anecdotal (one resident's post) |
| June 29, 2026 | MUSH rallies at Town Hall and files a written list of demands with the Town Clerk — no special use permits or variances for data centers, adequate public review time, public zoning meetings, multiple public hearings, no NDAs with applicants, no tax abatements or incentives — and begins collecting petition signatures to deliver at the July 15 Town Board meeting. | Reported — Watertown Daily Times |
| Late June 2026 | SEQR confirmed at its earliest stage — no determination of significance made; chair: "We have not even set up for a preliminary site plan." | Record — county coverage |
E. Filings & news — the links
- The town's records: massena.us → Agenda Center (Planning Board agendas, the May 21 minutes, the RSS feed). We hold preserved copies of the June 25 agenda versions, the May 21 minutes, and the RSS timestamps.
- News coverage: NCPR — Catherine Wheeler, "Massena Town Planning Board takes no action at data center meeting" (May 22, 2026), ncpr.org; North Country Now, northcountrynow.com; WWNY 7 News, wwnytv.com.
- The law in plain terms: New York's SEQR process — NYS DEC, "Stepping Through the SEQR Process," dec.ny.gov; New York Open Meetings Law §104 (notice) and §106 (minutes), nysenate.gov.