Parade of Pollution: July 30, 2018, Smith and Zuckerman Do Not Want to Discuss What Happened to Used Plastic Grass and Crumb Rubber #ArtificialTurfPrivilege

Part 8:

At the July 30, 2018, Montgomery County Board of Education meeting Superintendent Jack R. Smith had MCPS Chief Operating Officer Andrew Zuckerman read a prepared statement about the removal of the artificial turf at Richard Montgomery High School.  In the statement, Superintendent Smith called the discussion around the removal of the artificial turf a "distraction from core mission."

The statement read in part:

...It is unfortunate that there is a small group of individuals attempting to mislead and misinform our community about this issue. This behavior distracts from our core mission of teaching and learning. I am particularly troubled by the fact that in this case we are fielding questions about a paintball facility’s reuse of artificial turf in White Marsh, Maryland when here in Montgomery County locally we are focused on creating opportunities for all students to learn and achieve at high levels...

Unbeknownst to Superintendent Smith and MCPS COO Andrew Zuckerman an individual had traveled to the White Marsh, MD location that Smith and Zuckerman were claiming was an artificial turf recycling facilty.  That person posted their pictures of what they found to Facebook and Twitter.

Does this look like a "storage facility" to you?  Does it look like anything other than a paint ball field with used artificial turf and crumb rubber dumped all over it?

From Twitter: 

My hope is that MCPS does better the next time they dispose of artificial turf and infill. Does this seem like environmentally responsible move? pic.twitter.com/s4lZKzXTVg

— susan loftus (@SooznLoft) August 1, 2018

See Parade of Pollution posts documenting the pollution to our stormwater and environment from the removal of this one artificial turf football field at this link.