CORTLAND, NY (CortacaToday) — July 4th, 2024 marks thirty-five years since protestors in Cortland County created a mock nuclear plant cooling tower and set off fireworks from the top in an effort to rebel against the proposal for a radioactive waste dump site to be put in Cortland County.
According to the Cortland County Historical Society, it all started with a federal law passed in 1980, stating that individual states were responsible for disposing of their own low-level radioactive waste. The law also required that states have their own site up and running by January 1st, 1993. By December 20th, 1988, news broke that Marathon, Willet, Cincinnatus, Solon, Freetown, and Taylor were being scouted by the Low-Level Radioactive Waste Siting Commission as potential sites.
This caused an uproar within the county, and grassroots organizations started to form. The Coalition for Safe Communities, sanctioned by town boards, started doing research to be able to develop a case against the dump. The Citizens Against Radioactive Dumping (CARD), was a private citizens’ group created as a way to try and dodge bureaucratic delays to the process of opposing the dump site. CARD served as a crucial resource in terms of both educating and organizing the community, as well as making sure the message was spread that putting a dump site in Cortland County would be a battle hard-fought.
On July 4th, 1989, protestors wanted to make a statement, and decided that a faux nuclear plant cooling tower lit on fire with fireworks erupting from the top should do the trick. The tower was twenty feet tall and was built behind Cincinnatus Central School. Patti and Gary Michael were two instrumental organizers in CARD’s mission, and they had this to say about the cooling tower spectacle when interviewed by Sophie Clough of the Cortland County Historical Society:
Patti: The people we met, wonderful. Old-timers, young timers, the camaraderie, the community spirit it’s… one of the most fun ones for me was the meltdown behind the school.
Sophie: Yeah, so tell me a bit about that one. Who started to coordinate that?
Patti: The fire department asked us if we would burn an effigy for the Fourth of July, they wanted us to burn Cuomo but actually we didn’t feel that it was Cuomo that should be-
Gary: Thought that was a little personal.
Patti: So we thought a cooling tower and a nuclear missile would be good, so we built that on home plate behind the school and Gary uh sent out the press release to all the media that said you’re invited to attend the first meltdown since Three Mile Island, and we had everybody it was great it was great. And the fire department loaded it up with fireworks and boom.
Sophie: I heard it was pretty scary.
Patti: That’s one of my favorite things but you know attending-
Gary: That made six front pages on Sunday, back when there were six papers you know, it made as far as Oneonta, and Binghamton, Syracuse. Ithaca-
Patti: That was one of my favorites.
The fight to keep radioactive waste dump sites out of Cortland County lasted until 1995, and was ultimately won by those who protested, showcasing a strength in numbers that may not have been anticipated by those who proposed the site’s location. To learn more details and get the full story on how the fight was won, go to the Cortland County Historical Society’s website.
