"When we put people together from different disciplines and different backgrounds, that is when this magic happens” 

A Colorful Predicament

If you were to visit a school in Southeastern Ohio, you might encounter a young student reaching for an orange crayon to draw a picture of a river. In the area, acid mine drainage, stained by the rich hues of iron oxide, flows for approximately seven miles before it joins Sunday Creek. The pollution renders this stretch of waterway uninhabitable for aquatic life, but an ingenious and artistic approach is being used to confront the environmental challenge. 

An unlikely collaboration unfolded at Ohio University when Professor of Art John Sabraw and Professor of Civil Engineering Guy Riefler joined forces to craft a creative antidote for the pollution. Realizing the iron oxide nestled within the creek’s waters is the same substance used in many artists’ paints, the two set out to develop a new line of pigments created from the very pollution itself.