Don't want to trade it yourself?
Our desk runs DEX portfolios on profit share.
The Bitcoin mining facility at the center of El Reno’s massive water leak never had city permits to operate, built a fire hydrant the city didn’t know about, and violated multiple codes—and raises new questions about how it fits into the broader statewide data center debate
News 4 has been trying to get answers from the company behind the facility, Athlon BT LLC.
Phone calls and emails continue to go unanswered—and Monday, the company’s website, which had been up and running last week, suddenly went “down for maintenance.”
Many who saw News 4’s story Friday were shocked to learn El Reno even had a facility like this.
“I never knew what this place was,” said El Reno resident John Zawlocki. “I’ve never even heard of anything about it.”
That includes city officials.
“I knew what Bitcoin was, but I certainly didn’t know that that was happening here,” said city spokesperson Lyndsay Bayne. “A lot of us are very, very surprised.”
According to city records, the facility never should have been operating at all.
“You start with the initial building permits, and then you end with a certificate of occupancy permit, and all the inspections in between lead up to that final certificate of occupancy,” Bayne said. “And they did not have that final certificate or any of the inspections before that. And their building permits had been expired… There’s multiple, drainage, electrical. I mean, the list is long from the violations. They really weren’t in compliance at all.”
In a news release Monday, city officials said Athlon initially sought building permits for the property in 2022, but in 2023–the city issued
A stop-work order “due to multiple fire and life-safety code violations as well as the expiration of the building and electrical permits that had previously been issued.
City officials gave Athlon until December 2023 to correct the issues, however Athlon “continued to construct the facility and began operations” anyway.
After discovering the leak last week, the city condemned the property.
“I don’t think the water re support a data center,” Zawlocki said. “Period.”
The question of whether this type of facility even qualifies as a data center under city rules also remains unclear.
Before Athlon took down its website, it did describe these metal buildings full of server racks as “mobile data centers”—but they are a far cry from the hyperscale data centers proposed in nearby Yukon and Piedmont that have drawn so much public concern.
“El Reno doesn’t have any large data centers or any plans to have any large data centers,” Bayne said. “This was completely under the radar.”
While hyperscale data centers can run through millions of gallons of water to stay cool, city officials say these shouldn’t be using water—because Athlon told them the units are air-cooled.
The city says the water line in question is only supposed to supply a fire hydrant—one Athlon built at the back of the property, buried beneath a large pile of brush, without telling the city.
“That was all installed by them,” Bayne said. “We didn’t know about the hydrant. That is not… we have plans that show us all the city hydrants and then all the other. And we didn’t… we didn’t have that on the… we didn’t know about it.”
But on Monday, News 4 noticed above-ground pipes appearing to run between each mobile data center, back toward that fire hydrant—and before Athlon took down its website, it did describe a “hydro-cooling technology” it claimed to use.
News 4 tried to get answers from Athlon Friday about whether it uses that water line for more than just fire suppression.
“We really wanna make sure we have all the facts,” News 4 told a man working at Athlon’s property Friday.
“I love just sitting there and making y’all suffer,” the man at the property said.
The City of El Reno recently passed an ordinance requiring all proposed data centers to face increased scrutiny and public comment before moving forward.
“They have strengthened those regulations to now there has to be public comment for any data center or any large AI center like that to even be considered,” Bayne said. “We’re looking to see how that can be addressed for future.”
Zawlocki says regulation is long overdue.
“It needs to be regulated,” Zawlocki said. “It needs to have a lot of, you know, study, go into things to make sure that it’s not going to interfere with the community.”
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KFOR.com Oklahoma City.
Source: www.yahoo.com