CHARLESTON (AP) -
A State Police spokesman says five environmental activists have been arrested after chaining themselves to a coal barge in protest of mountaintop removal mining operations.
The incident happened Thursday on the Kanawha River near Chelyan.
The five were charged with trespassing and obstructing an officer and arraigned before a Kanawha County magistrate.
Sgt. Michael Baylous identified them as Catherine-Ann MacDougal of Gloucester, Mass., Rebecca Loeb of Maynard, Mass., Ricki Draper of Greensboro, N.C., Nathan Walker of Burlington, Vt., and Jacob Mack-Boll of Lancaster, Pa.
Draper, Walker and Mack-Boll posted bond, while MacDougal and Loeb were taken to Southcentral Regional Jail on $10,000 bond.
Last summer MacDougal spent a month in a tree at an Alpha Natural Resources mine near Marfork to protest strip mining. She pleaded no contest to trespassing.
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