Instead, she combines an archaeologist's reverence for the land's past, an environmentalist's concern for its future and an artist's appreciation of its present to create a new kind of public space. Bargmann sees her 35-acre Testing the Waters park, which will break ground next month in rural Vitondale, as part nature preserve, part geological washing machine.

The first in a series of parks that Bargmann is planning for the restoration of this part of southwest Pennsylvania, it is being paid for by the town along with state and federal agencies and will contain picnicking areas and hiking trails. But its central feature will be a stream of acidic water that will percolate out of the mine and course down a limestone-lined canal into aerating basins and finally to a wetland for a final rinse. Alongside the water's path, Bargmann is planting a "litmus garden"— rows of cherry trees, blueberry bushes and other plants whose autumnal colors will reflect the water's purifying progress as it cools down from a scalding orange to a soothing blue.