13 arrested in protest over Wise Co. power plant

RICHMOND - Thirteen people were arrested today for blockading the entrance to Dominion Resources’ corporate headquarters to protest the company’s plan for a new coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia.

The protest blocked Tredegar Street for more than two hours, with four college students forming a human chain with their hands encased in containers of hardened cement and a fifth dangling by a climber’s harness from the Lee Bridge footbridge that leads to Belle Isle.

The protesters, all arrested on various misdemeanor charges, were part of a contingent of more than 20 people from Blue Ridge Earth First! who launched the blockade at 7 a.m. to protest a decision by the state Air Pollution Control Board last week to approve pollution permits for a 585-megawatt power plant in Wise County.

"We’ve been through the regulatory process — it’s time to take action on our own," said Hannah Morgan, a 19-year-old resident of Appalachia, a town in Wise, who acted as spokeswoman for the protest.

Morgan said each protester was charged with obstruction of justice and interference with an emergency vehicle. "We are working hard to have these charges dropped," she said today.

Dominion employees were forced to walk to work after their vehicles were caught in a traffic jam that extended up North Fifth and Byrd streets, and the Downtown Expressway to Powhite Parkway.

"Dominion respects peaceful protest," company spokesman Karl Neddenien said today. "However, we do not condone illegal activities, such as the blocking of the road and preventing our employees from getting to work."

Dominion, owner of Virginia Power, employs about 640 people at its corporate headquarters, including the company's top executives. "It did affect the operability at Tredegar...It had a significant effect," Neddenien said.

The person with the best view of the traffic jam was one of the people who caused it — Marley Green, a 22-year-old senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg.

Green, a native of Hamilton in Loudoun County, climbed to the footbridge and lowered himself to dangle above Tredegar Street. His rope was attached to a 55-gallon drum, filled with cement, in the middle of the street.

Two protesters — Bethany Spitzer and Alyssa Barrett, both James Madison students — each had one hand inserted into the drum. They were linked to Kaitlyn Hart, a Virginia Tech student from Springfield, and Holly Garrett, of James Madison, who each had a hand fastened in a two-and-a-half gallon bucket of hardened cement.

All were arrested, along with other supporters who held signs behind the human chain and aided the protest. They were charged with misdemeanors for blocking the street.

"Certainly, it’s a risk," Green said in a cell-phone conversation before lowering himself to the street at about 9:25 a.m. "But it’s one I’m willing to take, and one that needs to be taken, to show how reckless Dominion’s plans are."

Blue Ridge Earth First!, along with another group called Mountain Justice, say the proposed $1.8 billion plant would emit too much mercury and carbon dioxide into the air, promote strip mining for coal in Southwest Virginia and cost consumers too much for electricity. They also protested Dominion’s possible plans to build a third nuclear reactor at its North Anna power plant in Louisa County.

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.

Staff writer David Ress contributed to this report.