Council:Environmental Impact of Artificial Turf - July 1st

On July 1, 2010, the Montgomery County Council's Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee is scheduled to hold a discussion of the "Environmental impacts of artificial turf." The discussion will be held at 2 PM in the 7th floor conference room of the County Council office building and will not be televised. 


Councilmembers Nancy Floreen, George Leventhal and Roger Berliner are on this committee. All councilmembers are up for re-election this year. 


The discussion should be interesting, however, it comes late in the game as MCPS has already started an initiative to put artificial turf on all high school football fields as the schools are modernized. 


Richard Montgomery High School (2008) and Walter Johnson High School (2009-10) already have artificial turf fields. Paint Branch High School and Gaithersburg High School are the next two schools to get artificial turf football fields.  In addition, the Parks department put an artificial turf field at Blair High School.  


When the County Council was reviewing the appropriations associated with the Richard Montgomery HS and Walter Johnson HS football fields, Councilmembers sat back and accepted inflated cost data for grass fields, and accepted the environmental concerns as part of the installation package. 


Now, on July 1, 2010, the discussion that should have come first. 

T and E Committee 2:00 PM - 7CHR
Jul 1 • Discussion - Environmental impacts of artificial turf


Image shows temperature of 167.3 degrees above artificial turf on August 16, 2009.