The Art of Environmental Activism Professors transform toxins into paint STORY BY COURTNEY PERRETT // PHOTOS PROVIDED
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r. Guy Riefler, an engineering professor at Ohio University (Athens), has devoted his research efforts to solving the extensive acid mine drainage problem in Southeast Ohio. “As an environmental engineer, my focus is problem solving using environmental solutions,” Riefler says. “For example, cleaning up pollution.” Rural Appalachia was a historically prolific
region for coal mining. Before the 1970s, the U.S. didn’t have many environmental regulations, which created a problem within many of the mines that were neglected after the coal deposits ran out. “Picture a coal miner, hunched over and pulling out coal from the earth. They would tunnel into it and remove as much coal as they could, but they left some behind,” Riefler says. “So, you end up with these labyrinths, tunnels carved out of the earth.”
ABOVE: John Sabraw collects iron sludge for testing at a stream impacted by Batgate Seep at Sunday Creek Watershed.
16 | SUMMER | FALL 2020
