Description:

Sculptor Mel Chin collaborated with scientist Dr. Rufus Chaney and government agencies to design gardens of hyper accumulators – plants that can draw heavy metals from contaminated soil. The metal extracted from the plants is sold for re-use, sustaining project costs.

Goals:

We live in a world of pollution with heavy metals saturating the soil. This pollution could be carved away, and life could return to that soil and then a diverse and ecologically balanced life.

Beneficial Outcomes:

Cleaner soil. Significant media attention to Dr. Chaney’s research; 23 years and several test sites later, phytoremediation is becoming commercially viable.

Images: