Two Ohio University professors - John Sabraw and environmental engineer Guy Riefler - have teamed up with local NGO Rural Action to create artist-grade paints from iron oxide extracted from a mining pollutant called acid mine drainage.
Acid mine drainage AMD is the overflow of acidic wastewater from underground mines, and has a high concentration of sulfuric acid and dissolved iron, which gives the runoff an orange color. Aquatic life struggles to survive in the acidic waters. An AMD site in Oreton, Ohio is pictured.
The coal mining industry provided economic opportunity for the state of Ohio beginning in the 1800s. Many of these mines were abandoned later, resulting in environmental problems. Two miners were pictured at Willows Grove Mine, Ohio, May 1946.
Ohio's AMD contains high concentrations of iron oxide, a substance that can also be used in paints, ceramic tiles and makeup. After visiting an Ohio waterway affected by AMD, Sabraw was inspired to raise awareness of the environmental hazards and experimented with creating paints from AMD.
Sabraw and Riefler joined together to create paint from the pollution. The project began with the help of grad students and volunteers collecting thousands of five-gallon buckets of AMD from a site in Corning, Ohio.
Once collected, the acidic stream water is neutralized through a chemical process, producing orange iron oxide that is then dried and ground into a pigment. Heating extracted iron oxide pigments in a kiln at different temperatures produces different colors. The Riefler says that the determining of the right temperature is one of the most challenging parts of the process, as the polluted water extracted each time may vary in acidity and quality.
In 2018 for a Kickstarter campaign to fund the pilot research facility, Sabraw and Riefler teamed up with Gamblin to create a limited run of artist-grade iron oxide paints called the Reclaimed Earth Colors Set. The paints will be produced commercially at a full-scale facility that is due to be operational in 2024, according to True Pigments.
The profits from iron-oxide paint sales will be reinvested into treating the water at seven miles of stream in the Sunday Creek Watershed in southeastern Ohio.
Sabraw has been incorporating paints into his art works to promote awareness of the AMD problem in Ohio, because of the development of artist-grade paints from AMD. The use of paints has added an environmental conscious aspect to their artistic practice. They feel that they are a part of the conversation in a very real way, says Sabraw.