Image above: Greenpeace activist 450 feet up coal stack masked for smoke. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace.
A Greenpeace protest against two city coal plants came to an end Wednesday morning when a group of eight protestors -- who had been perched high above the city on a smokestack since Tuesday morning - came down and were taken into police custody.
Eight other activists who rappelled under a Southwest Side bridge to prevent a coal barge from passing were arrested and charged late Tuesday.
The first group of anti-coal activists began climbing a smokestack at the Fisk power plant at 1111 W. Cermak Rd. about dawn Tuesday, spokeswoman Molly Dorozenski said.
“It is a little bit windy. It is dirty and dusty -- not the most comfortable place I’ve hung out,” protester Kelly Mitchell said via cell phone Tuesday evening.
“Our top priority has been safety and being protected from the elements.”
Mitchell said the protesters brought warm weather gear, snack bars and water with them, and vow to stay atop the smokestack “until Edison International and the city understand we can’t continue to have old, dirty coal plants in the city of Chicago.”
They also had prepared a system for using the washroom, but Mitchell wouldn’t give specifics. “It’s a little different than what it might be in your day to day life,” she said.
About 3 p.m., Dorozenski said the activists left a perch on a catwalk about 450 feet above the ground and were rappelling down to paint “quit coal” in bright yellow paint on the smokestack.
While the protesters were painting, eight others -- later identified by police as the six women and two men arrested -- rappelled from the Pulaski Street Bridge and dangled above the Chicago River to prevent a coal barge from passing, Dorozenski said.
Those who attempted to stop the barge -- six women and two men -- were arrested at the bridge at 3900 S. Pulaski Rd. and charged with reckless conduct, according to police News Affairs Officer Ronald Gaines.
All eight were charged with reckless conduct and performing an aerial exhibition without a net, according to police. The charges are misdemeanors.
Charged are: Jeanne Kirshon, 23, of Rockville, Md.; Kaitlin Finneran, 24, of Norwalk, Conn.; Daniel Strandquist, 28, of New York City; Shea Schachameyer, 27, of Milwaukee; Harmony Lambert, 22, of Shasta, Calif.; Carolyn Auwaerter, 25, of Melbourn, Pa.; Laila Williams, 24, of Rockville, Mass.; and Michael Alilionis, 21, of Floral Park, New York, police said.
These suspects had been wearing harnesses and helmets during their demonstration, the lieutenant said.
They were released early Wednesday. They are scheduled to appear in Misdemeanor Court, (Br. 43) on July 1, police said.
As the rains came down Wednesday morning, so did the group of protestors who had been on the smokestack since Tuesday morning, police said. As of about 9:45 a.m. police did not have details on the charges they would face.
Both protests were set to coincide with a U.S. EPA public hearing on increased pollution controls from coal-burning plants.
The protesters were taking action to draw attention to the health issues created by the Fisk and Crawford coal plants in the Pilsen and Little Village areas, respectively.
Greenpeace Activists Protest Coal (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/25/greenpeace-activists-arre_n_866692.html)
Image above: Greenpeace coal protester holds "Quit Coal" sign. Photo courtesy of Greenpeace.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports Wednesday morning that activists who had climbed the smokestack of the Fisk Generating Station have come down and are now in police custody. The climbers faced thunderstorms and heavy rains starting around 8 a.m. Police have not yet detailed the charges they will face.
Eight activists from Greenpeace have been arrested for blocking a shipment of coal on Chicago's Southwest Side, while eight more continue their occupation of the smokestack at one of the city's coal-burning power plants.
According to Greenpeace, those arrested had rappelled down from the Pulaski Bridge, near the Crawford coal plant in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, to stop a coal barge from passing. They dangled themselves in the boat's path, holding signs that read "We can stop coal" and "Nosotros podemos parar el carbόn," according to a Greenpeace blog post. The barge was unable to pass.
Police arrested the group shortly before 5 p.m., and charged them with misdemeanor reckless conduct, as well as the more creative charge of performing an aerial exhibition without a net.
Meanwhile, at Chicago's other coal-fired plant, the Fisk Generating Station in the Pilsen neighborhood, eight other activists were still 450 feet up on the plant's smokestack Wednesday morning, as storms came rolling in to the Chicago area.
On Tuesday morning, the eight scaled the giant smokestack, bearing signs reading "QUIT COAL." They also began painting the phrase in large yellow letters on the edifice, a process they had planned to finish Wednesday.
"We're going to stay up here until Edison International hears our message," said Kelly Mitchell, one of the activists who climbed Fisk, referring to the company that owns both of the city's coal plants. But if the impending weather threatens their safety, they may come down, Mitchell said in the morning.
The city's two aging coal plants are known producers of massive amounts of particulate matter and pollution, and have been reported to cause increased rates of lung cancer, heart attacks and asthma in the communities that live nearby.
Their fate was a major issue in this year's city election, with one alderman on Chicago's City Council forced by pressure from his challenger to end his years-long support of the plants and sign on to a measure to regulate them. That measure, the Clean Power Ordinance, did not pass the last City Council, but is expected to come before the new one early in its tenure.
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