DRESDEN, N.Y. — Activists keep trying to shut down a cryptocurrency mine north of Watkins Glen.

According to an article by the Gothamist, Greenidge Generation is facing a deadline from the Department of Environmental Conservation in late September to install screens that protect fish from being sucked into the plant's cooling system. The company applied for the permits to install the screens in mid-August, but the DEC says Greenidge has been operating without them since it was issued its original water permit in 2017.

The article continues, the intake for the cooling system is under the waters of the lake, about 700 feet from a power plant that is producing natural gas energy for the crypto mine. The plant is permitted to use up to 140 million gallons of lake water per day for cooling.

In addition, the Gothamist cites Edwin Cowen, a civil engineering professor at Cornell University, who alleges without the screens on the intake system, fish get sucked in and are then killed by the impellers.

Greenidge disagrees the facility is having any impact on the fish population. 

The DEC denied Greenidge a Title V Operating Permit to expand in June. The bitcoin mining facility continues to fight the denial of its application saying the decision was “both legally and factually flawed," according to the Gothamist.

New York state says the company's previous efforts to comply with new climate and community protection laws were not good enough.