In the gloom and drizzle of yesterday morning, six men and women dressed in funeral clothes and air filter masks hammered 563 white crosses into an Elrama baseball diamond while behind them a power plant stack billowed dark smoke.

	Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Members of Greenpeace place white crosses in the infield of the Elrama Field along Route 837 south of West Elizabeth. Reliant Energy's coal-fired power plant is in the background. Click photo for larger image.

Greenpeace Clean Energy Now! campaigner Chris Miller, wearing black gloves marked with his group's name and a thrift-store black suit, said the 3-foot-high crosses represent the number of people in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area who die prematurely each year because of fine particulate pollution emitted by power plants.

"This is sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and pieces of fly ash that come from the stack to embed deep within the lungs and cause respiratory illness, lung cancer and heart attacks," Miller said. "Here in the shadow of this power plant is a place where kids come to play baseball."

Pat Hammond, a spokeswoman for Reliant Energy of Houston, Texas, said the company's Elrama power plant in Washington County has modern emission control equipment in operation.

"We do better than what is required in our permit," she said. "If regulators determine that more stringent standards are needed, we would certainly do our part."

In contrast to last month's protest at Hatfield's Ferry power station in Greene County, where six Greenpeace activists were arrested after they climbed a 700-foot smokestack, workers at the Elrama plant yesterday weren't aware that a demonstration was taking place.

Police arrived at the baseball diamond in the early afternoon when the group was taking the crosses down, but "they had nothing really to say," Miller said. "Everything was fine."

The ball field was built on fly ash, said Pat Stark, who has lived by the small park and the power plant for 35 years. She was surprised the markers went into the ground easily.

Stark and her friend, Martha Nagy, went to the park yesterday morning after another neighbor alerted them about the activity. They welcomed the Greenpeace activists because they, too, have fought with the power plant to do something about the dirt, fumes and smoke.

"I'm in agreement," Stark said. "If I wasn't, I'd be calling the police."

The siding on nearby houses is pitted and black and cars are often coated in particulates. A woman strolling with her toddler noted that she routinely wipes down the outdoor toys because she fears her child will get the dirt in her mouth.

According to a report by Clear the Air, a joint project of three clean air groups, New York City and Chicago were the only places that had more premature deaths than Pittsburgh.

Nationally, coal plant pollution contributes to 23,600 early deaths, found Abt Associates, an environmental consulting group commissioned by the group to do the research.

Federal policy has weakened clean air laws and doesn't put a priority on investing in renewable, pollution-free energy sources, such as wind power, Miller said.