Save Carbon County, an environmental citizens’ group, is suing Stronghold Digital Mining, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and others, the group announced Tuesday.

Freiwald Law of Philadelphia has filed a civil action in state court in Philadelphia on behalf of Save Carbon County.

Save Carbon County is suing to get a decrease in the pollution of the air and water produced by Panther Creek Power in Nesquehoning.

“Panther Creek and its parent company, Stronghold Digital, have made millions at their Nesquehoning site but have ignored the costs to our Carbon County environment. We are trying to even the accounts with this lawsuit,” Save Carbon County says.

Stronghold Digital owns two bitcoin mining operations in Pennsylvania and the facilities use enough electricity to power approximately 1.15 million homes per year, Save Carbon County says.

The Nesquehoning site burns waste coal and tires to produce electricity for its bitcoin mining operation. The fuels produced 430.4 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions and 291.5 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions in 2023, according to Save Carbon County.

The plant neither measures particulate emissions nor carcinogenic polyaromatic hydrocarbons which are specifically produced by burning tires, Save Carbon County says. Stronghold’s two Pennsylvania bitcoin mining sites received $20 million in subsidies from the state in 2023, according to Save Carbon County.

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection are also named in the lawsuit for failing to act as an effective trustees in protecting the environmental rights of citizens, as required by the Environmental Rights Amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution.

“We are bringing this case to protect the environmental rights of residents of Carbon County and all Pennsylvanians,” said Aaron Freiwald, founder and managing partner of Freiwald Law, P.C. in Philadelphia and Save Carbon County’s lead attorney. “We believe we have a very compelling case under Pennsylvania state law and the Pennsylvania Constitution’s Environmental Rights Amendment.”