Linked Arms: A Rural Community Resists Nuclear Waste

1. The Struggle Begins

1 The Struggle Begins Low level nuclear waste is a misleading term. WestValley has low level waste that’s so radioactive it has to be driven in shielded trucks. . . .They will tell you that in one hundred years all the radioactivity will be gone; that’s not true. —Carol Mongerson ofWestValley Coalition D E C E M B E R 2 1 , 1 9 8 8 , A L M O N D , N . Y. — NEARLY A YEAR BEFORE Sheriff Scholes’s meeting with the state police from Albany, Betsy Myers was baking Christmas cookies and thinking about holiday parties, while her husband, Steve, sat at the kitchen table, reading the NewYork Times. Suddenly he jumped up, startling Betsy, and moved to the counter. “Look at this! There’s a good chance that NewYork State’s going to put a nuclear waste dump only a few miles from our home.”A map of the state disclosed thirty-two townships that had been identified as potential sites. Five were in Allegany County. “Geographical, geological and population concerns ,” the article stated, “removed much of the state from consideration as potential sites,” and “regulations excluded from consideration Long Island, NewYork City and the Adirondack Park.” “Low level nuclear waste,” according to the article, included “things like contaminated clothing and equipment . . . from hospitals, industry and utilities .”Steve was reading the article aloud to Betsy, but stopped and interjected, “Like hell.That’s only the tip of the iceberg.” Steve was a muscular man with short cropped hair and such a closely clipped beard that it appeared to many as though he simply hadn’t shaved for a week or two. He had been involved in enough environmental movements to doubt that any nuclear waste would be innocuous. After graduating from Pratt Art Institute in NewYork City where he specialized in photography, he worked on one of the first ecological exhibits in the United States, entitled 9 SUNY_Pet_ch01.qxd 9/13/01 2:02 PM Page 9 “Air andWater Pollution,” at the Smithsonian Museum in 1967 and began an odyssey as a radical environmentalist. A year later he was on the staff of New York Magazine where he photographed stories that ranged from the Hell’s Angels to the artistic community in SoHo. One particularly memorable piece was on pollution of the Hudson River. In addition to his work in photojournalism , Steve began to establish himself as a commercial photographer. He and Betsy became sweethearts when both were students at Pratt. After graduation, they became pioneers in SoHo at a time when NewYork City zoning codes made it illegal to live there. Nevertheless, the inexpensive rents of abandoned industrial buildings and the huge spaces for lofts attracted struggling artists, and the authorities mostly ignored them. Since the birth of their son, Matthew, a couple of years earlier, the Myerses had talked about moving to a rural area to raise their family. They had hesitated, because Steve feared his opportunities for artistic and commercial 10 L I N K E D A R M S Permission NYT Graphics The New York Times/Dec. 21, 1988 SUNY_Pet_ch01.qxd 9/13/01 2:03 PM Page 10 work would dwindle. Two muggings, one that sent Steve to the emergency room and the other that badly frightened Betsy, finally tipped the scales.They moved to Almond, a village on the eastern edge of Allegany County, not far from the Pennsylvania border. Steve had earlier developed commercial relations with Dow Corning and Eastman Kodak, two companies situated in western NewYork within seventy miles of their new home. Betsy’s family still lived inAlmond, where her mother was highly respected as a local historian. Steve had been accompanying Betsy to the area since 1966. Having spent all of his youth in large American cities, he was fascinated by the county’s rural life, which he began photographing. Steve paced the kitchen and re-read the NewYorkTimes article out loud to Betsy, becoming more and more agitated. Looking again at the map showing the thirty-two targeted townships, he blurted, “I think it’s going to be in Allegany County.The other places are either too close to NewYork City or too far from a major highway.They’ll want to use the SouthernTier Expressway.” He was referring to a four-lane highway (now designated Interstate 86) that bisects Allegany County, extending from Harriman near the Hudson to a corner of...