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Southeast Ohioans are familiar with the orange hue acquired by streams and creeks polluted with acid mine drainage.
Ohio University professor Guy Riefler is working with OU art professor John Sabraw on an outside-the-box approach to tackling the problem. The two have developed a process for neutralizing the acidity of contaminated streams and extracting the iron oxide to make paint for artists. With help from Rural Action, they developed True Pigments and partnered with a paint company to create a limited run of 500 oil paints.
Their first full-scale treatment facility is scheduled to be operational in 2024 at the Truetown discharge of the Sunday Creek Watershed -- a watershed that has been described as "lifeless."
It's not the way this kind of clean-up effort usually gets started, but perhaps that will mean it is more successful than efforts relying on the way things have always been done. The True Pigments project is one small example, but it is proof that thinking creatively might be our ticket out of the mess we've made -- and a beautiful way to do it.