CHARLESTON, W.Va.—Five environmental activists have been arrested after chaining themselves to a coal barge in protest of mountaintop removal mining operations.

Sgt. Michael Baylous says the incident happened Thursday on the Kanawha River near Chelyan. The five were arraigned before a Kanawha County magistrate.

Catherine-Ann MacDougal of Gloucester, Mass., Rebecca Loeb of Maynard, Mass., and Nathan Walker Joseph of New Orleans were charged with trespassing and obstructing an officer. Ricki Draper of Greensboro, N.C., and Jacob Mack-Boll of Lancaster, Pa., were charged with trespassing.

Draper, Joseph 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.