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[No. 12] Artificial turf does not make financial sense. One of the most pernicious frauds perpetrated upon the gullible taxpaying public is the myth that artificial turf fields are money savers. The readers of this site are well aware of this falsehood that the proponents of artificial turf fields in our communities use in order to garner political support for further desecration of the natural grass fields and the an environment.

According to a news report in the Jackson Clarion Ledger (Mississippi, May 9, 2010), the Ledger asked if synthetic turf really saves money? Is it the right solution for schools? “Saving money doesn’t seem to be the primary reason school administrators install synthetic fields. They want a playing field that's nearly maintenance and hassle free - a surface they can rely on 365 days per year.” According to David Coates, the 18-year head football coach at Northwest Rankin High School, in Jackson, Mississippi, “No, I don’t see us saving money. It costs a lot of money to put it in. Whether or not it’s truly cost effective, that can be argued from a lot of different points.”

According to the Ledger, turf companies charge “about $600,000-$700,000 for the purchase and installation of a football-field sized turf that has an eight-year guarantee and is expected to last 10-12 years. When the turf wears out, a new surface costs about $350,000, if the base from the old field can be salvaged. Figuring liberally, a high school grass field costs about $400,000 to maintain over a 10-year period. Figuring conservatively, a synthetic field costs about $650,000 for the first 10 years. It’s after that first decade when turf companies say schools begin to save money. But for every 10 years from that point on, factoring in $50,000 for turf disposal and yearly maintenance, schools will spend about $450,000 on a synthetic surface - a number that’s near the cost of a real grass field.” According to state Rep. Rita Martinson, R-Madison, “I don't think it saves money. I do question its cost, I know that it takes a lot of work to keep a (grass) football field going, but I don’t think artificial turf is the answer to everything.” Per the Ledger, “And the old turf has to be disposed of. Experts say disposal is not only bad for the environment but can cost more than $100,000.” “I think there’s a lot of places that have gone to artificial just because it’s trendy,” said Barry Stewart, an associate professor of agronomy at Mississippi State. “Places where we're only playing seven or eight games a year, we ought to be able to keep grass on that field.” Source: Ross Dellenger, “Turf war: As more high schools move to artificial turf, there's no debate as to its durability. But does it make sense financially?,” in Jackson Clarion Ledger, May 9, 2010, available at http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100509/SPORTS06/5090342/1287 .

[No. 11] New York City: Decision to install turf gets very little due diligence, say medical experts at Mount Sinai Hospital. According to the text of a communication received by SynTurf.org, on March 5, 2009, a group of medical physicians from the Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit of Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City,

sent a letter to the California Environmental Protection Agency, advising it of the health hazards of synthetic turf fields. Addressed to the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the letter, which was written by Drs. Philip Landrigan, Maida Galvez and Joel Forman, stated, “Our most global finding was that decisions to install synthetic turf fields were for the most part made with very little due diligence. A number of these very

expensive fields were installed with little or no consideration of possible negative

effects.”

[No. 10] EHN: “Athletes kick up hidden toxic chemicals from artificial turf.” The October 28, 2008, edition of Environmental Health News http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs has a discussion about “Athletes kick up hidden toxic chemicals from artificial turf.” It features the seminal work of J. Zhang, I-K Han, L. Zhang and W. Crain, entitled “Hazardous chemicals in synthetic turf materials and their bioaccessibility in digestive fluids,” which was published earlier in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 18:600–607 (2008). The newsletter is available at http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/new-yorkers-are-kicking-up-toxic-chemicals-on-artificial-turf#resources or click here.

[No. 08] New Jersey Educational Association  (NJEA), Grass Playing Fields vs. Synthetic Turf: How will your district decide (May 2008). This item is a fact sheet that appeared in the Health & Safety section of the NJEA’s online publication (May 2008). The publication is available at http://www.njea.org/pdfs/HS_GrassTurf_May08.pdf  or click here. It is intended to encourage a rational comparison of artificial turf and natural grass on the basis of a number of considerations – cost , maintenance, disposal, wear and durability, hazardous materials, heat stress, sanitation, sports injuries, and environmental health. Here are a few pointers from the NJEA fcat sheet:

Cost: “School districts should be encouraged to request comprehensive bid proposals from both artificial turf and natural grass producers. The bids should include “cradle-to-grave” costs, including field preparation, installation, maintenance and repair for an extended period of time (at least five years), and disposal. Natural grass with onsite native soil is usually the least expensive to install. The more prepared the soil is, the more expensive natural grass installations become. Synthetic turf is usually the most expensive to install.”

Maintenance: “Artificial turf fields require personnel and equipment for dragging, infill additions, redistribution, cleaning, and carpet repair. Specialized equipment includes a sweeper, groomer, field magnet, and roller….Both types of fields require a line painter, cart for towing equipment, and a top dresser. Both also require irrigation and perhaps boom spraying. In the case of artificial turf these are for cooling as opposed to grass growth. Local associations should be alert to the need to retrain grounds staff if they will be required to maintain artificial turf. Some maintenance tasks may require specialized equipment and skills that could be outsourced.”

Disposal: “One artificial turf field contains approximately 120 tons of crumb rubber or 26,000 recycled tires. Costs for removal and disposal could be significant. Many fields now in service will soon be reaching the end of their life spans and many questions about disposal remain to be answered…. [T]he infill could be cleaned and reused; put to another purpose, such as for rubber asphalt; incinerated; used in place of soil to separate landfill layers; or otherwise recycled. Typically, however, it is sent to a landfill. There are no real disposal issues with grass fields.”

Wear and Durability: “Wear and durability information should be obtained and compared. With regular maintenance, synthetic turf fields usually last up to 10 years and are typically warranted for seven to eight years. Properly installed and maintained natural grass fields remain viable for about 15 years.”

Hazardous Materials: “School districts should ask for a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) on each turf component and anticipated maintenance product. If any are of unknown composition or have no available MSDS, that should raise a serious warning. Hazardous materials associated with natural grass fields include pesticides and fertilizers, unless the grass is being grown organically. Hazardous materials associated with artificial turf include ingredients in the polyethylene/polypropylene blades, the crumb rubber infill, and ingredients in maintenance products like disinfectants, anti-static cling treatments, and solvents for seam repair. Recycled crumb rubber contains a number of chemicals that are known or suspected to cause adverse health effects. The most common types of synthetic rubber used in tires are composed of ethylene-propylene and styrene-butadiene combined with vulcanizing agents, fillers, plasticizers, and antioxidants in different quantities, depending on the manufacturer. Tire rubber contains metals (zinc, selenium, lead, and cadmium), phthalates, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). One company produces “Ecofill” infill, asserting that it contains fewer toxins. An MSDS will give some information on the health hazards of the product. An MSDS is written by a product’s manufacturer and should contain a list of hazardous ingredients and may contain the percent of each ingredient in the product. Ingredients may be missing if they are considered a trade secret.”

Heat Stress: “Artificial surfaces are dramatically hotter than natural grass fields, reaching temperatures up to 150 F‚ possibly contributing to burns, dehydration, and heat exhaustion. They may be too hot to play on at times. Watering cools them down, but they reheat quickly.”

Sanitation: “Soils in grass fields contain bacteria which decompose body fluids, algae, and dog, goose, and other droppings. These do not decompose on artificial turf. Proper maintenance of synthetic turf requires that the fields be sanitized to remove body fluids and droppings. Manufacturers market sanitizing products for this purpose. According to

Synthetic Turf Sports Fields: A Construction and Maintenance Manual, published by the American Sports Builders Association in 2006, some synthetic turf owners disinfect their fields as often as twice a month, with more frequent cleanings for sideline areas, where contaminants concentrate.”

Sports Injuries: “Several studies reported no differences in the incidence, severity, nature, or cause of injuries in soccer teams who played on grass versus new-generation synthetic turf. However, injuries may depend on the type of sport being played. A five-year prospective study of football injuries among high school teams showed that there were about 10 percent more injuries when games were played on synthetic turf than when played on grass surfaces. Conversely, the risk of serious head and knee injuries was greater on grass fields.”

[No. 07] New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) Fact Sheet: Be Aware of Artificial Turf Hazards. WEC (www.njwec.org), 142 West State Street, Trenton, New Jersey, “is an alliance of labor, community, and environmental organizations working together for safe, secure jobs, and a healthy, sustainable environment. WEC links workers, communities, and environmentalists through training, technical assistance, grassroots organizing, and public policy campaigns to promote dialogue, collaboration, and joint action.” For WEC’s fact sheet about artificial turf go to  http://www.njwec.org/images/pdf/WEC%20factsheet%20on%20Artificial%20Turf.pdf 

[No. 06]  MLS 2008: So far, New England Revolution has done better on grass. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. June 9, 2008. So far this season, the New England revolution has done better on natural grass than on artificial turf. SynTurf.org has correlated Rev’s win-loss record with the type of field surface for the 12 games played so far in the 2008 season (March 30 through June 6).

Of the 12 games played thus far, Rev has played 6 games on artificial turf and 6 games on natural grass. On artificial turf, Rev has posted 2 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws. On natural grass, the Rev has posted 5 wins and 1 loss. Naturally, many factors go into winning and losing a game; but just in case everything else being equal, it looks like so far natural grass favors the Rev more than artificial turf. For the raw data compilation, including venue of the 12 games, click here.

In Major League Baseball, the National League all home fields are natural grass and they have been so since Montreal relocated to Washington, D.C. In the American League, only Toronto, Tampa Bay and Minnesota play on artificial turf.  

[No. 04]  StrathAyr Technology at Reliant Stadium in Houston. By Guive Mirfendereski. SynTurf.org, Newton, Mass. March 26, 2008.

Call it the irony of ironies: After many years during which the artificial turf industry turned natural grass fields into wastelands of plastic and crumb rubber infill, it looks like many artificial turf fields at the end of their life(less)-cycle can go right back to natural grass. Surely, there are efforts on the part of the natural turf and sod industry and research facilities to create a better grass variety, which can grow quicker and under adverse conditions, with little need of water, deeper growing roots, which can outlast the sports season, all with a lot less or no need for pesticides and fertilizers or frequent use of gasoline-powered mowers, etc. The dream field is one that can be natural grass but look and play like artificial turf. Or, maybe not.

If natural grass playing fields want to survive, the planners and politicians need to realize that the dirty secret of any artificial turf is not as much the carpet itself as it is the drainage technology that supports it. It is no secret that, everything else being equal, a natural grass playing field that is on top of a superior drainage system will outlast any other natural grass field that is not. 

There is a venue in the United States that combines the benefit of having a natural grass playing field with the infrastructural support of a drainage system fit for an artificial turf system – Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas, the home of the NFL team Houston Texans.

It is not the policy of SynTurf.org to endorse a specific product; however, the site does mention, form time to time, a particular product when its description offers a window onto an interesting technology or ramification that is worth considering.   

As SynTurf.org understands it, in Reliant Stadium the grass playing surface is on top of an StrathAyr drainage system. This consists of what the company calls an extremely resilient, safe and long lasting natural grass surface,” that has been proven at major racetracks and sports stadia around the world. “It consists of a specially engineered profile that incorporates a base drainage layer of gravel and pipes, a lower layer of sand and an upper rootzone layer reinforced with unique ReFlex mesh elements.” “The result is a natural grass surface which combines remarkable surface strength, excellent drainage and improved grass growth, allowing increased usage over a long period.” See, http://www.ecoterr.com/turftrack-grass-track-horse-racing/about_turftrack_grass_track_racing_systems.htm and http://www.ecoterr.com/turftrack-grass-track-horse-racing/grasstrack_racing_installations_around_the_the_world.htm.

Here is the clincher: The world famous Hong Kong Jockey Club pioneered the use of this system some 17 years ago. Other venues that use this all-weather drainage technology for grass tracks and fields are Kranji Racetrack in Singapore; Telsta and Parramatta stadia in Sydney, Australia; National Stadium Complex in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane, Australia; and Urban Ventures in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA).

But then perhaps the tyke and youth of America are more demanding of their grass fields than the jockeys and horses on the racetracks of Australia and Hong Kong.

Here is a thought, if we did not feed our kids like horses or insist that an offensive lineman needs to be really 300 pounds, may be there would not be as much wear and tear on the grass playing fields under their feet! Here is another idea. Why not tweak the rules of the game(s) for the sake of "going green" and help the natural grass fields last longer?

[No. 03] National Football League Field Trends. For a list of NFL's fields and grass/turf roster click here.  

There are more natural grass fields in the NFL than artificial turf. In the last decade or so, there have been three conversions from artificial turf to natural grass (Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco), which involved the old generation of artificial turf. The conversion by the New England Patriots from natural grass to artificial turf in December 2006 and the turf surfaces planned for the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium and Lucas Oil Stadium (Colts) would not suggest a trend toward natural grass. The Giant Stadium, on the other hand, is thinking of going back to natural grass (see MLS trends below at No. 02) and may give natural grass a slight advantage as far as trends may go. The synthetically enhanced grass technology (DD Grassmaster/Desso GrassMaster http://www.dessosports.com/en/home.html) and Prescription Athletic Turf drainage systems (http://www.themotzgroup.com/PAT/PAT_stats.php) may well help promote the retention or even new installation of natural grass in many venues, where the field use is limited to one or two sports. On the other hand the roll-in grass technology (such as in use at University of Phoenix Stadium/Arizona Cardinals) may allow for a natural grass surface that can be removed for other activities when needed. The trend in planning new venues is toward retractable roofs, which could promote the installation of natural grass because the roof can open to allow sunlight and rain and it can be closed to prevent flooding and other adverse climate conditions that can affect the field as well as spectator comfort. It is not necessarily inevitable that indoor venues that replace the old ones should have to have artificial turf surfaces.

In the 2008 MLS season only 2 MLS venues will be artificial turf surfaces – BMO Filed in Toronto and Gillette Stadium (New England Revolution). Real Salt Lake and New York Red Bulls will be playing on natural grass: the assumption is that the conversion from playing on artificial turf will be achieved by the venues (Rice-Eccles Stadium and Giant Stadium, respectively) changing to natural grass. The trend toward natural grass in soccer is owed to two major factors -- the construction of smaller and dedicated soccer-specific venues and physical strains of playing soccer on artificial turf. The gain of net two natural grass fields in the 2008 season may be offset in 2010 if the newly franchised Philadelphia team opts for artificial turf.       

                                        

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network [www.delawareriverkeeper.org] is an advocacy organization working throughout the Delaware River Watershed.  As the voice of the River, the network champions the public interest with respect to the River and its streams. Assisted by professionals and a network of members, volunteers and supporters, the Riverkeeper seeks to restore the watershed's natural balance where it has been lost and ensuring its preservation where it still exists.