On a national scale, most Superfund sites get reused as industrial or commercial uses, very few are reused as green space.
Palmerton, PA – home to Palmerton Zinc Pile site and part of the Appalachian trail – has experienced a lot of change.
Zinc was transported from PA and NJ to Palmerton and smelted into ore; waste was left in a large pile, and air pollution blanketed the mount
Palmerton was established because the Lehigh Gap provided a link through the Appalachians, connecting coalfields of PA and east coast indust
The EPA manages a series of OUs (operable units) on site. Contamination remains in soils and water.
The EPA has installed maintained tree plantings on the ridgetop. However the site as a whole is still overwhelmingly dominated by invasive s
The lexicon aims to frame questions and tensions, and challenge our conventional approaches and perceptions of the contaminated landscape.
The lexicon aims to capture more of the nuance and meaning present in the landscape, rather than force it into a single category.
A series of experimental gardens is proposed – rather than one ecological condition in a single patch, an adaptive system of maintenance.
Climate adaptive plantings and a new trailmarker create a threshold at the edge of the site, marking it as hybrid & shaped by human actions.
Desired and undesired species work together, using mechanical thinning over time and enrichment planting to foster sapling growth.
Conditions for understory blueberry and raspberry growth are created through thinning, playing with emergence and the perception of risk.
Palmerton has experienced several wildfires. This plot plays with disturbance and recovery, opening patches with clearing and burns.
Materials thinned from other sites create mounds, building back soil, reframing waste material as a resource, and mimicking soil amendments.
The site is regraded with terraces that slow water and soil erosion, and create a frame for moss and lichen growth in the most desolate area
