The New Jersey Sierra Club Hosts Educational Webinar on the Dangers of Turf Fields

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, the New Jersey Sierra Club hosted an educational webinar on December 4th at 7 PM . The webinar was called ,  “fighting artificial turf in NJ”. This event  uncovered the environmental harms, public health risks, and financial impacts of toxic artificial turf.

A recording of the webinar can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIzHb-T4lJs. The chat text is attached. The New Jersey Sierra Club answered a majority of questions asked during and after the webinar. Answers can be found here. Here is the Green Acres Resolution,  SR113(Mukherji) and the Artificial Turf Ban bill, S3783(Mukherji) mentioned in my presentation.

Q& A | Artificial Turf Webinar

 

• In some ways isn’t it better than natural turf in that no water is required

• • A lot of water is used in the fracking process- entire lifecycle 
  • With organic maintenance and the appropriate amount of organic material, will not require as much watering 
  • When artificial is very hot or needs to be cleaned, it needs to be cooled/ washed with water 

 

• What are the key takeaways in beating an artificial turf field

• • Early detection of a plan to address playing field deficiencies and shortages
    • Start advocating for investment in organically maintained natural grass ATHLETIC fields before artificial turf fields are considered.  
    • Attend recreation commission meetings, as these meetings are often not live streamed or recorded, but this is where plans to install artificial turf fields will begin
  • Be relentless in attending and making public comments at board of ed (BOE) and town council (TC) meetings
    • BOE and TC meetings are recorded, so opposition to artificial turf will be part of the public record
    • BOE and TC are often livestreamed and available for replay; public comments provide an opportunity to educate both elected officials and the general public will hear your message
  • Create and distribute flyers to educate residents about the issues
  • It is important to offer organically maintained natural grass athletic fields that have been designed to withstand high-use sports activities as a viable alternative to artificial tur

 

• • Bruce Bowman: What towns have successfully blocked new artificial turf fields? How did they accomplish this?

• My town installed plastic grass when a deep-money resident promised to pay 2/3 of the cost ($1.5M). When I tried to bring the downsides to our Town Council, they told me that they were going to use a “new” type of turf design that reduced or eliminated the problems I was raising. Is there any type of plastic grass that reduces/eliminates injuries, reduces excessive heat, etc.
  • The multi-billion dollar artificial turf industry is currently not regulated by any government agency, even though the product contains toxic chemicals and the primary users are children and adolescents.  
  • This lack of regulations enables the industry to make misleading claims about health, safety and sustainability.
  • If there were plastic grass that reduced or eliminated injuries then the NFL Players Association wouldn’t be pushing all teams to convert their fields back to natural grass. Only Natural Grass Can Level The NFL’s Playing Field | NFLPA
  • Things like alternative infill material to crumb rubber are often sighted as some new type of turf.  These materials come with their own set of challenges and are “less bad” at best.

• Shari Garretson: Will this presentation be available for town officials to watch at a later date?  Or, better yet, is there a 5 -10 minute introductory video that states the basic problems with artificial turf that I could send to council members and the mayor
  • The recording of the meeting will be available shortly.

 

• Richard Leister: What is the source of information for the cost of ownership?
  • The capital costs for artificial turf was derived from an actual project budget developed in 2023 for a much larger project.  Costs from that project were scaled down proportionally based on square footage.
  • Annual maintenance costs and grass field renovation costs were largely determined in consultation with an active member of the NJ Sports Field Management Association.
• Margaret Illis: Will the new hybrid turf fields be discussed? Our Rec Commission said it addresses many of the complaints regarding artificial turf
• Joanne: Is there any research into the dangers of the chemicals in the turf to dogs (or to people running barefoot)? Many dog agility competitions are moving away from outdoor events to indoor shows on artificial turf at indoor sports complexes.
  • You raise an interesting question, but our focus has been on human health, so we have not looked into the impact on agility dogs. 
  • Health experts advise field users to avoid passive activities (i.e. sitting and eating ) on artificial turf and wear shoes on artificial turf.  Please scroll to the end of  Artificial Turf Health Risks for “Tips for Safer Play on Artificial Turf,” from 

The Institute for Climate Change, Environmental Health, and Exposomics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. 

 

• Dan Boughton : Many manufacturers now “claim” pfas free artificial turf fields. How can this claim be refuted? Our town is using this as a main point for pushing artificial turf fields.
  • “On this question, it’s worth noting that information on PFAS can be confusing, and for many product categories, the absence of certain specific PFAS chemicals may sometimes be confused with the absence of all PFAS. There may not be an intention to mislead, but there may be room for error, so “PFAS free” claims for any product should be examined carefully. In addition, even if PFAS are not used intentionally, in some cases they may be present as contaminants from the manufacturing process.” Environmental Health Impacts of Synthetic Turf and Safer Alternatives page 4
  • Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Artificial Turf: Test Methods
  • Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Artificial Turf: Academic, municipal, and other testing efforts
  • Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in Artificial Turf Carpet

 

• Tim Ifill: Regarding the price comparisons: one big argument schools will make (and have in my town) FOR turf fields is that the full costs can be considered capital expenses for bond purposes. But for turf fields, that ongoing maintenance cost, which is the majority of the 20-year cost in the presented scenario, has to come out of the schools’ already incredibly tight annual operating budgets. This is a tough argument to counter, and I’d love to hear about successful approaches
  • I’ve heard this argument before, but I believe the logic is flawed.
  • The interest payments on the bonds are also paid out of the operating budget.  These amounted to $135k/year for the first 10 years in this example.
  • By rights, the BOE should accrue the $70k/year needed to build up a fund to replace the carpet in Year 10 and again in Year 20.  This money would also need to come from the operating budget.
  • The principle on the bonds eventually needs to be repaid to the bondholder.
  • As noted in the presentation, if hiring full time employees can’t be justified then a contractor with the appropriate expertise could be hired to manage a single field.
  • It doesn’t seem to make sense to pay 2.5 to 3.8 times more for the field than they have to, just to get maybe a few more hours of play per year?
  • The cost of destroying a natural grass ecosystem cannot be measured in dollars
  • Schools should be aware that the NJ Student Learning Standards require climate change education to taught in grades K-12 and across all content areas
  • Artificial turf fields exacerbates climate change

 

• Rob Wilson: I haven’t seen yet whether grass or turf is better for sports injuries.  Is there data on this?
  • Certain lower body injuries are higher on artificial turf.
  • Certainly the NFLPA wants to be rid of artificial turf and women’s professional soccer sued FIFA and won the right to play on grass just like the men.
  • Only Natural Grass Can Level The NFL’s Playing Field | NFLPA
  • There will be a deeper dive into health and safety aspects in an upcoming webinar.

 

• Anna Freedman: Can you talk about how to hire a turf manager? Who offers education on this field? Does Rutgers? Thank you for this information
  • The NJ Sports Field Managers Association is probably the best place to start.
  • Sports Field Managers Association of New Jersey – Home Page

 

• Are there any case studies of natural grass withstanding prolonged periods of athletic play? The sports folk argue that the grass can’t handle the sheer amount of soccer played on it.
  • Building an Organic Maintenance Program for Athletic Fields: Guidance from Experts and Experienced Communities
  • Natural Grass Playing Field Case Study: Springfield, MA
  • Natural Grass Playing Field Case Study: Marblehead, MA
  • Natural Grass Playing Field Case Study: Martha’s Vineyard, MA

 

• Kip Cherry: Why are so many towns making the wrong decision? Does this relate to hours of use and the total acreage that towns would need for their athletic fields? Also it would seem that the additional maintenance required for real turf would be viewed as an additional expense or in reality does the artificial turf over the years, net, actually require more maintenance – because the replacement work is done by a contractor paid for out of the capital budget rather than the annual operating budget?

 

• Virginia Lamb: Links to good community websites?
  • The Field Fund

 

• Bruce Bowman: will ppt slides be available?

 

• Tammy: Will chat info be available too?

 

• How do citizens initiate a referendum?
  • Westfield and Scotch Plains sought help from NJ Appleseed – Pro bono legal work and activism for people of NJ
  • They helped draft the petition for a referendum on the bond ordinance and provided guidance on the process for a nominal fee.
  • You need the exact language from the bond ordinance to create the petition.
  • You then have 20 days from the official public notification of the ordinance being passed to collect the required number of signatures.
  • The number of signatures needed is 15% of the number of residents who voted in the most recent general election in which assembly members are on the ballot.
  • It then requires quite a bit of coordination and a few dozen motivated residents who are registered voters of the town to collect all the signatures and get the petition sheets notarized before turning them into the Town or Board of Ed.
  • We also distributed information sheets door to door in advance of collecting signatures and before the election to educate residents about the project and the concerns about artificial turf.
  • As mentioned, residents from both towns were successful in first petitioning for the referendum and then getting enough votes to defeat the project.
• Could someone please share the bill numbers for the NJ synturf ban and end of funding for synturf installation on public lands in the chat?  That’s incredible there is a bill for statewide ban.  Thank you 🙏 
  • Green Acres Resolution SR-113 (Mukherji)
  • Artificial Turf Ban Bill – S3783 (Mukherji)
  • Still a lot of work to be done to get the legislation passed.
• Any effort to engage parents/coaches of youth athletes? My family who engage in year round sports as both coaches and players claim artificial turf results in more injuries
  • It’s great (but rare) to find local athletes and coaches who advocate for natural grass. 
  • Part of the “playbook” for artificial turf advocates is to send student athletes to Town Council and/or Board of Ed meetings to plead for artificial turf.
  • Certainly the NFL Players Association is arguing that injury rates are higher on artificial surfaces.
• Shari: Don’t see the question option.)  Doesn’t artificial turf require drainage?  Maybe even more
  • Artificial turf is an impermeable surface and absolutely requires drainage underneath the field.
• What should we do when existing AT needs to be replacement
  • Ideally, convert it back to natural grass
  • The study done in Verona by interns through Montclair State University concluded it’s less costly to convert back to grass.
  • It breaks the cycle of old artificial turf going to landfill and more plastic carpet and infill entering the local environment.

 

• Are there teams and coaches who use natural grass who will advocate for their superiority

 

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