Vintondale, Pennsylvania
1995 – 1998
construction completed 2004

Toxic orange streams and absence of life within their banks attest to the widespread environmental problem of devastation wrought by acid mine drainage (AMD). The Vintondale Reclamation Park project joined an interdisciplinary team of artists, designers, scientists, and historians with local communities, watershed groups, and state and federal agencies, to collaborate on a model redevelopment initiative for post-coal mining regions.

The first pilot project for the AMD+ART initiative took shape on an abandoned forty-acre floodplain covered with Mine No. 6 refuse alongside the polluted Blacklick Creek. With a focus on making remediation processes visible in a new public park, the didactic forms of passive treatment for acid mine drainage demonstrate the potential regeneration of derelict landscapes along the regional Ghost Town Bike Trail.

Clients + Collaborators

Stacy Levy, artist; T. Allan Comp, historian and director of non-profit AMD & ART; Robert Deason, hydrogeologist; AmeriCorp Interns