Artificial Turf: Report -- Why SF Dept. of the Environment?

Ever wonder why the AT Work Group relies so heavily on the San Francisco Department of the Environment's findings? And why the SF Dept of the Environment issues those reports? here are some clues:

First, from the online The Potrero View from August 2011:
Synthetic Turf Threatens San Francisco’s Natural Fields
By Bailey deBruynkops

In San Francisco, where foggy dew is plentiful, fields of glistening grass blades are increasingly being replaced with shiny synthetic turf. More than 30 acres of City fields have already been synthetically turfed, with grass areas located at the Potrero Hill Recreation Center, Mission Playground, Ocean View Playground, and Golden Gate Park’s Beach Chalet fields being eyed as the next synthetic frontier. This fall the Planning Department will publish an environmental impact report (EIR) examining the potential consequences from trading grass for rubbery plastic on San Francisco playgrounds.

And:
In addition, under the plan Golden Gate Park’s natural grass would be replaced with synthetic turf. The material isn’t akin to the Astroturf of the olden days, but consists of two to three inches of pulverized tire crumbs. According to a preliminary report questioning synthetic turf issued by Charles Vadair, a staff toxicologist at the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, and Chris Geiger, the San Francisco Department of the Environment’s municipal toxics reduction coordinator, “To date, San Francisco has introduced over 16 billion pounds of pulverized tire crumb into its public spaces; the equivalent of 4,392 barrels of oil…Artificial fields have been found to be 8 to 10 decibels noisier than natural grass.” Tire crumb contains 15 metals which are listed as oral carcinogens. Synthetic turf is vulnerable to vandalism, as well as bacterial build up – associated with gum, food, and bodily fluids – that adhere to the obliterated tire rubber. The report also criticizes the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) and City Fields Foundation for ignoring previous EIRs that identified adverse outcomes from synthetic turf.

And here is the money quote:
City Fields Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, is leading the effort to install synthetic fields throughout San Francisco. According to the nonprofit’s website, the Playfields Initiative, under which grass fields are being replaced, is a partnership between City Fields and RPD, with $45 million in funds; $20 million from the City and County of San Francisco and a $25 million “gift” from the City Fields Foundation. City Fields’ leadership includes John J. Fisher, president of Pisces Inc., an investment management company, and Matt Lockary, of Baycor Builders, a construction firm which at one time listed on its website a business arrangement with City Fields and the City and County of San Francisco worth more than $50 million.

To read the entire article go here.

And here is more on the City Fields Foundation, from the online FogCityJournal.com:
Astroturfing in San Francisco, by Julian Davis

"One thing is certain, the City Fields Foundation, a private non-profit organization recently set-up by Bill, John and Bob Fisher, sons of Gap founder Donald Fisher, is crazy about synthetic turf. They just love it. In a purportedly philanthropic effort to address the city’s shortage of playfields, the Fishers’ Foundation has offered up millions of dollars to makeover San Francisco parks. There’s just one main condition, that Rec and Park install synthetic turf containing toxic plastic and rubber materials."

and:

"Astroturf is made of plastic and ground up bits of tire rubber that contain carcinogens, hazardous chemicals, and heavy metals such as lead, zinc and arsenic. Results from a study published by The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in 2007 indicated the presence of numerous chemicals detrimental to human health that are found in the tire-crumbs used in synthetic fields.

The Connecticut study investigated the composition of ground rubber and determined that the chemicals leached by mincing tires exceed the cancer risk threshold in young people, children, and babies. Although tire rubber is ‘recycled’ in astroturf, the process of replacing natural grass with synthetic astroturf is hardly carbon-neutral. Natural grass eliminates Co2, a major green house gas, from the atmosphere. Synthetic turf, on other hand, does not. It also contributes to significantly higher field temperatures and higher injury rates."

For the entire article go here.