Acid-rain protesters end their smokestack-sitting

February 12, 1982

Three environmentalists in Ohio and Indiana who protested acid rain by perching atop utility plant smokestacks for three days gave up their demonstration and climbed down Thursday.

Two smokestack sitters in Arizona were still at it, but in need of supplies to continue their protest as of this writing Thursday.

The protesters both in Ohio and in Indiana were arrested by police for trespassing when they reached the ground.

The protesters chose plants that environmentalists say contribute to forming acid rain, a mixture of sulfur emissions and moisture in the air that some scientists say is damaging lakes and forests in the Northeast and Canada.