Wasted water: Officials say El Reno ‘failed’ to enforce stop-work order at leaky bitcoin site

EL RENO — The City of El Reno will seek to recover costs associated with a 3.8 million-gallon water leak at a bitcoin mining operation in drought-stricken Canadian County, officials said Tuesday.

The multi-day leak disrupted the county-seat community of about 20,000. The Canadian County Courthouse and El Reno Public Schools closed for several days owing to low water pressure. The leak prompted a widespread search of the city that involved citizens and city staff that eventually traced to a property south of Interstate 40 owned by Athlon BT, a bitcoin mining company.

But while the leak was eventually found, the company that owned the site turned out to be operating in violation of building and fire codes that had not been enforced, Mayor Steven Jensen and interim city manager Ken Brown said Tuesday.

“We failed,” Brown said.

When the mining site was under construction in 2023, Brown said the city issued a stop-work order owing to electrical, construction and fire safety violations.

But Brown said no one from the city ever followed up to confirm Athlon BT had brought its site up to code. As a result, the company operated without further inspection for about three years before the water leak, which was traced to a private hydrant connected to the city’s infrastructure.