CHICAGO -- Two members of the environmental group Greenpeace were arrested and charged with misdemeanors Wednesday after ending their 29-hour protest atop a 200-foot smokestack at the city's only garbage incinerator.
The two, identified as Sarah Cecil, 24, of Chicago, and Norman Oppegard, 38, of Minneapolis, were charged with trespassing and disorderly conduct and released on $100 bail each.
They face a June 15 court date.
The pair scaled the smokestack Tuesday morning at the Northwest Waste to Energy Facility on the city's West Side, unfurled a 50-foot-long banner protesting the production and emission of toxic ash and remained on a catwalk -- about 110 feet up -- until shortly after 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Chicago police officers, who were awaiting their arrival on the ground, escorted the two to a squad car and and booked them soon after. Neither was handcuffed.
'I think we made a strong, strong start in exposing the dangers of the city's garbage disposal program,' Joe Thornton, Greenpeace regional spokesman, said of the demonstration. 'Our goal is to get a strong recycling program started and have a moratorium placed on incineration in Chicago.'
The city, however, has insisted the amount of toxic ash produced at the facility is safe and well within allowable federal standards.
