Stephen and Betsy Myers collection of citizens resistance to the placement of a low level radioactive dump site

Collection

Identifier: 6503

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

Correspondence, legal documents, and other records relating to the protests in Allegany County; photocopies of newspaper articles from local newspapers and The New York Times and whole-page newspaper ads; subject files; audio cassettes of radio broadcasts, meetings, debates, and performances; buttons, postcards, stickers, bumper stickers, posters, flyers, and other ephemera; and papers written for Cornell University courses by Matthew L. Myers. Also, "Beyond Control," a photographic art show by Steve Myers.

Dates

1989-2000.

Creator

Myers, Stephen. (Person)
Myers, Betsy. (Person)
Myers, Matthew L. (Person)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

In 1989, the New York State Low-Level Radioactive Waste Siting Commission, under federal mandate to find a home for low-level nuclear waste, notified Allegany County in western New York that it was one of ten counties under consideration. Citizens of Allegany County successfully defeated the facility through a grassroots movement and organization, the Concerned Citizens of Allegany County (CCAC), co-founded by Stephen Myers; a separate organization for civil disobedience, Allegany NonViolent Action Group (AGNAG); and a legal case on Tenth Amendment grounds relating to the siting of a nuclear waste facility. A separate Public Health Task Force was also established to deal with issues of safety, health standards, and environmental quality. The legal challenge forced New York State to review the challenge posed by Allegany and Cortland Counties to the constitutionality of the siting process at the state level.

The issue eventually went to the United States Supreme Court, after three defeats at the state level and a petition signed by 13,000 residents. The decision, New York v. U.S. et al., determined that "Congress cannot force states to assume ownership and liability of low-level radioactive waste within its borders."