Atlas Power data center, Williston, North Dakota

Neighbors of the Atlas Power data center near Williston, North Dakota, were receiving settlement payments in March 2026 after suing the cryptocurrency-mining facility's owner over excessive noise. Twenty-two neighbors had sued, saying Williams County was not enforcing its own rule that all noise stay inside the site's heavy-industrial zone. Terms are confidential, Atlas attorney Doug Daniels told the court on March 13, and the data center is still operating as normal.

Gov. Doug Burgum announced the $1.9 billion project in January 2022. It was built by Montana-based FX Solutions to be owned and run by Atlas Power, planned in three phases from 240 megawatts up to 700 megawatts, with about 65% of its computing power mining cryptocurrency. The Bismarck Tribune reported in 2024 that the site was drawing 200 megawatts of power and that the regional grid operator had limited how much more it could draw until power lines in the area were upgraded.

The land had been an alfalfa field zoned heavy industrial for years, but most neighbors said they had no idea what was coming. "It still sounds like a jet plane taking off," said Corey Seidel, whose property line is 420 feet from the site. Lacie White, who measured 67 decibels by her daughter's bedroom window, said: "My daughter wakes up in the middle of the night and she struggles to go back to sleep because that's all she hears."

In 2023 the county granted a temporary certificate of occupancy after Atlas paid $232,000 in fines for building code violations and promised acoustical panels and security fencing. A settlement was reached in June 2025, a month before a scheduled jury trial. By March 2026, attorney Daniels said three settlements were finalized, more were coming, and three were still being negotiated.