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Amidst significant acid mine drainage (AMD) in Appalachian coal country, artist and historian Allan Comp assembled a multidisciplinary group of community members, artists, designers, scientists, and historians to collaborate with community members on a redevelopment and remediation program. The project, AMD&ART, was completed between 1994 and 2005 in a 40-acre floodplain along the Blacklick Creek. Landscape architects D.I.R.T. Studio, led by Julie Bargmann, with Comp, artist Stacy Levy, and hydrogeologist Robert Deason, designed a passive treatment system relying on natural processes to remove metal deposits and raise the pH levels of the water. The team’s design exposed, rather than concealed, the remediation zones as learning opportunities for similarly polluted areas.

Contaminated creek water is pumped into six ponds shaped as keystones (the state symbol of Pennsylvania). The first pond is lined with limestone to naturally draw out iron deposits, and water flows downhill through the successive ponds, becoming cleaner as it progresses. At the end of the cycle, the clean water saturates a seven-acre wetland and re-enters the creek. Alongside the ponds, one thousand trees were planted in a “Litmus Garden,” with species selected so that shades of fall foliage would correspond to the colors of the acidic water in each pond. A procession of red-leafed black cherry and sweetgum trees, orange-leafed sugar maples, and yellow-leafed poplars and hackberries finally lead to a grove of pale-green-leafed black willows at the final pond. Recreational amenities including picnic areas, baseball and soccer fields, and a volleyball court are sited amongst the remediation zones. Public art throughout the park interprets the site’s industrial history and the remediation efforts.