7 On Your Side: Students wounded by school's new artificial turf fields

"Skin lacerations, gashes are open wounds for months, increased injuries" from NEW RMHS Artificial Turf #zeolite #plasticgrass #MoreBandages

At the November 8, 2018, Montgomery County Board of Education public hearing on school facilities a Richard Montgomery High School student gave public comment about the injuries caused by the new artificial turf at the school.  Watch her statement below.

The Board of Education calls this a "best practice."

The Board of Education used $562,721 of Operating Budget funds to pay for this artificial turf.  That means they sacrificed teacher salaries to pay for this new field.  They did not use Capital Budget (bricks and mortar) funds.  There is no money available to replace this field again.
Students will need to buy more bandages.

.@MoCoCouncilMD @MontgomeryCoMD who is accepting responsibility for massive crumb rubber pollution of Cabin John Creek? Crumb rubber everywhere even after @MCPS official “claimed” precautions taken!

.@MoCoCouncilMD @MontgomeryCoMD who is accepting responsibility for massive crumb rubber pollution of Cabin John Creek? Crumb rubber everywhere even after @MCPS official “claimed” precautions taken! pic.twitter.com/fIRL1p3RNY

— Lyda Astrove (@LydaAstrove) July 30, 2018

Please notice spilled crumb rubber all over the place, entering Cabin John creek watershed due to shoddy artificial turf removal/replacement efforts at #RichardMontgomeryHS @mocoboe pic.twitter.com/foL9lcXten

— Lyda Astrove (@LydaAstrove) July 30, 2018

3rd Dumpster of Artificial Turf Headed to Brunswick, VA Landfill #artificialturf #12tons #MontgomeryCounty #whiteprivilege

3rd Dumpster of artificial turf at RMHS 7/29/2018

8/6/18 Update:  See all the pollution generated by the removal of the artificial turf at RMHS at this link. 

12 tons of the used plastic field and crumb rubber have been sent to the Brunswick, Virginia landfill.

A 3rd dumpster has been filled with used artificial turf and crumb rubber at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland.  The artificial turf field was used for 10 years and now is being removed and at least 3 dumpsters of the used plastic and ground up tires is being sent to a landfill in Brunswick, Virginia despite assurances by the Montgomery County Board of Education that:

"The existing artificial turf material has been removed and sent for recycling."

Please note that two of these pictures were taken after the statement from MCPS COO Andrew Zuckerman saying that the old field had been sent for recycling.

Maybe MCPS COO will explain to the public what he means by "recycling" at this evening's Board of Education meeting.

2nd Dumpster 7/26/2018

1st dumpster at RMHS  7/18/2018

@MikeOzanian - Montgomery County School Board lied about disposal of artificial turf field

Montgomery County School Board lied about disposal of artificial turf field https://t.co/gpmuVO33Kn

— Mike Ozanian (@MikeOzanian) July 27, 2018

RMHS Plastic Field Headed to Brunswick, VA Landfill. Thank you Virginia! #artificialturf #makingmemories

8/6/18 Update:  See all the environmental pollution generated by the removal of the artificial turf at RMHS at this link. 

Yesterday, we showed you the dumpster full of plastic artificial grass, ground up rubber tires, hay and plastic bottles at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Maryland.

That dumpster showed that despite years of promises, the Montgomery County Board of Education and Montgomery County County Council were not going to recycle the artificial turf football field at Richard Montgomery High School.

Instead, at least 8 tons of the field are being sent to the Montgomery County incinerator in dumpsters.

But what happens when those dumpsters arrive at the Dickerson incinerator?  As we know from the September 26, 2011, Montgomery County Council hearing on artificial turf (the one where Councilmember Roger Berliner cut the video feed), artificial turf plastic grass is a "nonprocessable waste" (Page 86 of Power Point) and if delivered to the Dickerson incinerator will be sent to our out-of-state landfill in Brunswick, Virginia.

Not only is the RMHS artificial turf field not being recycled, at least 8 tons of it will permanently reside in the landfill in Brunswick, Virginia for centuries.  Artificial turf football fields are used for 10 years and take 1,000 years to decompose (or will never decompose) in a landfill.

You can take your grandchildren to visit the Brunswick, Virginia landfill and rehash the football, lacrosse, and soccer games that were played on the field during it's very short life at RMHS.  And while you are there you can also visit with the artificial turf fields from Blair HS, Wootton HS, Walter Johnson HS, Paint Branch HS, Gaithersburg HS, Whitman HS, BCC High School, Somerset ES and all the others to come.  They will all be there soon.

https://www.scribd.com/document/66591209/T-E-9-26-11-AT-slides

https://www.nmwda.org/montgomery-county/

Click here for more on the story of the removal of the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field.

Breaking: Board of Ed. defines Recycling as Throwing in a Dumpster and Sending to Incinerator

The Montgomery County Board of Education has put out an announcement about the removal of the artificial turf football field at Richard Montgomery High School.  The announcement is on the home page of the MCPS website. The announcement says in part: 

July 21, 2018 

Dear MCPS Community,

This week, contractors began work to replace the artificial turf field at Richard Montgomery High School. The existing artificial turf material has been removed and sent for recycling. The entire system, including turf fibers and infill, will be repurposed as a continuation of the overall lifecycle of the materials...

...Contractors and MCPS staff are working diligently to remove the artificial turf in a safe and efficient manner and look forward to installing the new organic infill field shortly.

Andrew Zuckerman
Chief Operating Officer
Montgomery County Public Schools

Richard Montgomery High School
Artificial turf plastic grass, crumb rubber,
hay and empty plastic bottles in a
dumpster on July 25, 2018Source Twitter @BLCon

This is a great summer learning excerise for students.  Have your student read the words from the letter above and then ask them what they think those words mean? 

Then you can show them the picture of the artificial turf plastic grass, crumb rubber, hay and empty plastic bottles in a dumpster on its way to the Montgomery County incinerator.  Explain to your children that this is what recycling looks like in MCPS.   

It turns out that in Montgomery County "recycling" is the same thing as sending trash off to the Dickerson incinerator. 

Now you know!

Richard Montgomery HS getting new turf field.  Supposed to recycle old syn turf and keep crumb rubber out of storm drains.  Tractor trailer load of used ST disappeared & other ST getting dumped.  Crudest of drain protection in use. pic.twitter.com/JF4wjdCePY

— Bailey Condrey (@BLCon) July 26, 2018

Richard Montgomery High School crumb rubber artificial turf field removal

Here is the official letter stating that the hazardous artificial turf field at Richard Montgomery High School was removed and 'recycled.' The letter is dated July 18, 2018, and the company is Turfcycle USA. According to this letter the used commercial tires crumb rubber field is now at 11011 Pulaski Highway, White Marsh, MD.

Chain of Custody Reuse by freestategal on Scribd

Forget Plastic Straws, Board of Ed. is Dumping Ground Up Tires in Streams in Cabin John Watershed

Remember when FieldTurf told the Montgomery County Council in 2011 that when artificial turf is removed "every single component will be recycled?"

Here we are 7 years later and this is the reality.  The Richard Montgomery HS artificial turf has been ripped up and 120 tons of ground up tires (crumb rubber) are being spread all over the school grounds, parking lot, roads and are going into our storm drains, ponds and creeks in the Cabin John Watershed.

All of the black dots you see in the pictures below are ground up tires (crumb rubber) used as the infill on the artificial turf field at RMHS.  Each artificial turf field requires 120 tons of ground up tires. All pictures were taken in the last two days and after the recent rain storm.

Drain surrounded by ground up tire pellets from artificial turf infill on 

Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field. 

To report illegal dumping in the City of Rockville:

There it goes! But where is it going? Dump? Incinerator? Another High School?

This is a picture of some of the used artificial turf from the Richard Montgomery High School field being hauled away.

But where is all this plastic going?  The Board of Education has not discussed this or made a plan for how to dispose of an entire football field of plastic. 

If you see the driver of this 18 wheeler, ask them where they are headed.

Local school districts and municipalities have spent millions in recent years installing synthetic turf football and soccer fields. Now many of these installed by FieldTurf have been proven to be defective and are failing prematurely.
In Montgomery County, the public school system contracted with FieldTurf to install artificial fields at the Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson High Schools. The artificial turf at Blair High School was installed by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.
FieldTurf has been repeatedly sued for breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and recovery for fields installed in 2007 and 2008. In California, the Bret Harte Union High School District, Chaffey Joint Union High School District, and the Crystal Springs Uplands School have filed lawsuits. Another example is the Middleton-Cross Plains School District in Wisconsin. Basically, these complainants argue that the problem lies with the FieldTurf Duraspine monofilament fibers, which they blame for the fields decaying faster than the terms promised under the warranty.

RMHS’s Artificial Turf Warranty Expires Today

RMHS’s Artificial Turf Warranty Expires Today

August 18, 2016 Cynthia Cotte Griffiths Montgomery County, Schools

The Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field

Local school districts and municipalities have spent millions in recent years installing synthetic turf football and soccer fields. Now many of these installed by FieldTurf have been proven to be defective and are failing prematurely.

In Montgomery County, the public school system contracted with FieldTurf to install artificial fields at the Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson High Schools. The artificial turf at Blair High School was installed by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission.

FieldTurf has been repeatedly sued for breach of contract, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and recovery for fields installed in 2007 and 2008. In California, the Bret Harte Union High School District, Chaffey Joint Union High School District, and the Crystal Springs Uplands School have filed lawsuits. Another example is the Middleton-Cross Plains School District in Wisconsin. Basically, these complainants argue that the problem lies with the FieldTurf Duraspine monofilament fibers, which they blame for the fields decaying faster than the terms promised under the warranty.

The eight-year warranty for the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf field expires today. The public information office for Montgomery County Public Schools has not been able to verify if any claims have been made under the warranty.

In many locations, the rubber pellets show through in large amounts.

In 2011, Field Turf sued TenCate, the maker of the fiber, claiming that after they contracted for Tencate’s monofilament artificial grass fiber, the company “changed its fiber formula and the manufacturing process that it used to create the fiber” and provided a “less durable” product. A settlement was reached during the second week of a jury trial which is believed to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

As a local CBS story in New York exposes, taxpayers are the last to know when a school system has received the defective product.

A few days after Richard Montgomery’s turf was installed on August 18, 2008, Destrehan High School had their field installed on August 21, 2008. Drestrehan High School had their field replaced by FieldTurf which paid for 70% of the cost under their warranty.

Upon inspection, the Richard Montgomery High School field has quite a large amount of rubber pellets showing through very thin synthetic grass fibers.

Towson University had the same defective Duraspine material installed in June 2007 and it was replaced after five years. During the process, the University was forced to pay Field Turf for “an upgrade”.

Should Montgomery County Public Schools file to replace the fields under their warranties?

On Tuesday, Forbes published an investigative article with evidence that the artificial turf field at Walter Johnson High School puts high school players at risk. Referencing a report by Athletic Field Consultants Inc., which revealed that the G-Max often exceeded 185 (when professional athletes play on fields at 130 or less), the article stated that the consultants made a note that this was the exact premature wear and disintegration that FieldTurf itself alleged in it’s lawsuit against Tencate.

Yesterday, USA Today wrote a piece asking if a lack of standardized shock absorption rates was putting teen athletes at risk. The turf manufacturer claims the G-Max can be as high as 200. The Parent’s Coalition of Montgomery County has published a chart from OSHA that shows a G-Max of 200 “will cause death”.

If no action has been taken by Montgomery County Public Schools under the warranty, school administrators, parents, and student athletes could be faced with an increasingly dangerous situation.

Editor’s Note: As a Richard Montgomery High School parent and Parent Teacher Student Association officer, I’ve never heard any mention of the field being defective or in need of being replaced.