tanoma ochre : december ’22
Contributor Dana O’Driscoll writes: “Tanoma Ochre comes from the Tanoma Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Remediation site near Indiana, Pennsylvania. Like thousands of miles of streams throughout Pennsylvania, the Crooked Creek Watershed is polluted from abandoned mines that were closed in the 1950’s and 1960’s. These streams run into the Mississippi and Chesapeake watersheds. At least 2 billion gallons of iron-polluted water have been released from the mines at Tanoma alone. The Tanoma AMD Site was established in 1995 to filter out heavy amounts of iron oxide using settling ponds, aerobic wetlands, and a hydraulic air trompe system. One of the byproducts of this process is this beautiful iron oxide pigment, already settled into a very fine pigment in the pools at Tanoma. A group of committed community volunteers in the Evergreen Conservancy maintain the site.”
contributor: Dana O’Driscoll
Dana O’Driscoll is an artist and permaculture practitioner residing in the beautiful Allegheny Mountains of Western Pennsylvania. Dana specializes in three disciplines: watercolor, leatherwork, and natural arts. Dana first discovered natural pigments after a visit to the Tanoma AMD (Acid Mine Drainage) site in 2017. Dana lives at a 5-acre homestead in rural western Pennsylvania with her partner and a host of feathered and furred friends.
Image by Dana O’Driscoll. Photo courtesy of Dana O’Driscoll.