A coordinated effort to arouse public awareness as to the dangers of the piles of rock ash or fly ash deposited in Manzanillo and Samana took place on Saturday as hundreds of people took to the streets of these small communities to protest the presence of the waste product in their towns. The marches, according to the newspaper Hoy, were supported by evangelical and Catholic churches, business groups and various environmental groups. Santiago reporters Erika Guzman and Santiago Gonzalez filed their story from Samana where the slogan was ?to jail with those that brought the rock ash.? In Manzanillo, reporters Anselmo Silverio and Ismenia Furcal reported that the protesters headed by the Ecological Network of the Northwest picketed the offices of Trans Dominicana de Desarrollo, S.A., the firm that brought the rock ash to the Dominican Republic. The protesters asked President Mejia to remove the rock ash from Dominican soil. In Samana the protest began at the Santa Barbara church and moved to Arroyo Barril where senator Ramiro Espino and Victor Lauriano spoke out against the waste deposits. In Manzanillo, the local mayor, Daniel Martinez along with Guarionex Luperon and Ramiro Polanco spoke out against the rock ash deposit.