Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/01/08/watch-artists-turn-a-toxic-aba.html
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“Watch artists turn a toxic abandoned mining facility into a powerful environmental message”
Isn’t an abandoned toxic mining facility a powerful environmental message in and of itself? Is gilding the lily ecologically sustainable? Snideness aside, though, that is some nice work.
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If the message is ‘don’t drink the water for 10,000 years’ then message received!
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The art is very cool and powerful.
However, I must say that I am kind of concerned about how much additional environmental damage they did in making the art. Whatever short-term containment that the building would have offered to the hazards inside is gone; and I don’t know what all was in those tanks they cut up but any residue on the walls is now powdered and ground and blown on the wind and the pieces of the tank are now sitting on the ground which increases the amount that is in contact with the ground. (There is also the lack of containment of any rain that gets into the tank, now it will run right out and seep into the ground water, carrying contaminants with it. And yeah, I know, desert, not much rain.)
Also, there is that part where the artists get cancer and die from inhaling the witch’s brew without protection…
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I would somewhat agree with the first/second paragraphs; it’s kinda silly cutting massive holes into buildings federally documented as containing contaminants. Looks cool though!
The third paragraph - well that’s their choice to make, isn’t it - same as any other dangerous hobby. I’ve wandered round a couple of enviromental disasters before, as long as you know what you are walking into, and you behave appropriately then you should be at least vaguely safe.
I’m more interested in “eco-friendly” spray paint. How do you make spray paint eco-friendly; between the propellant, the solvents and the pigment they tend to be pretty awful?
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I know it’s their choice and everything… it’s just I think PPD would have really went with their core message of “this area is dangerous and contaminated as heck”, would have looked cool in the videos, and would have kept them from getting lung fulls of contaminated heavy metals.
Now, a heavy tagging with the right kind of spray paint might have helped contain the contaminants until the cleanup could happen. Although yeah, I doubt very much there can be a lasting truly environmentally friendly spray paint, although I am sure some are worse than others. 
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It might not make a difference. The last superfund sites I had to audit usually had ground water, and ground contamination. The buildings were not a part of it, except to be more garbage left behind. I’m not an expert, but from the stuff I was reading in the reports, some sites are cleanable because they can haul off the contaminated dirt, and some it’s in the ground water. IIRC, mining has a high level of contamination of the groundwater.
I only have the ones I looked at as a comparison, but the buildings were the last of their issues. They made parks out of a lot of them because as long as you don’t disturb the ground, it’s fine. You just can’t build on them, grow crops on them, or live on them.
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Andrea’s link leads to a site where you can read about it; low volatile sugar-derived something something something.
I was hoping for milk paint in a Binks gun, run from a bicycle powered compressor 
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