For athletes, new turf infill means old problems "...it’s still slippery..." "...artificial surface will continue to resemble slippery concrete more than than natural grass..."

 

Four years, two field closures and one infill replacement later, athletes remain worried that the turf poses a danger to their safety and their athletic careers.

MARCH 24, 2023

In May of 2018, the Montgomery County Board of Education voted seven to one to approve the installation of a $1.3 million turf field at Whitman, despite controversy surrounding its infill material, ZeoFill. At the time, community members expressed concern about the lack of publicly available research on ZeoFill’s safety and durability.

Four years, two field closures and one infill replacement later, athletes remain worried that the turf poses a danger to their safety and their athletic careers.

Last year’s closures and subsequent infill replacement brought hope that the slipperiness, drainage problems and dust clouds that had come to define the artificial field would finally subside. However, some still feel that the field remains unsafe for play.

Since April 2022, Whitman’s athletes have played on BrockFill, a wood particle-based infill that is engineered to provide greater traction, durability and drainage than its competitors. The school district installed BrockFill after officials determined that the field was failing to adequately drain after rainfall. However, according to varsity football player Talan Penberthy, a junior, BrockFill hasn’t proved itself a satisfactory replacement. 

For Penberthy, the engineered wood particles beneath the playing surface are uncomfortable during physically-involved games and practices when the team is commonly on the ground.

“When I first fell, my elbow turned to shreds,” Penberthy said. “The way my cleat would dig into the turf felt off compared to other turf.”..

Breaking: 3 Year Old Plastic Football Field at Whitman High School Out of Commission for Playoff Games. Report [Pictures] Documented 27 Repairs in October.

Dear Walt Whitman High School Community Members,

The purpose of this email is to update the community on the state of our turf field and it’s use for sports and activities. The field has been used throughout the fall by multiple Whitman teams and outside organizations like MSI soccer. During the fall season, we have collaborated with MCPS in monitoring its condition. Subsequently, the field has undergone repairs and been assessed multiple times by MCPS facilities specialists to ensure the safety of our students and outside users. 

Out of an abundance of caution, we will not be using the field for the remainder of the fall sports season, specifically two home playoff games for girls soccer and field hockey respectively. Both of these games will be played at Walter Johnson High School on the evening of Friday, November 4. Whitman field hockey will play Urbana High School at 6:00pm and Whitman girls soccer will play Parkdale High School at 8:00pm. 

With the fall regular sports season concluded, we will collaborate with MCPS to further evaluate the playing surface of the field in order to identify any necessary repairs that need to be made in the months ahead. We will keep our community updated on any actions that are taken.  

While we are disappointed that we are unable to use the field for these two important games, we are nonetheless proud of all that our student athletes accomplished during the fall sports season at Whitman. As always, our students and parents are encouraged to attend these playoff games at Walter Johnson High School to support our field hockey and girls soccer teams. 

Sincerely,

Robert W. Dodd, EdD

Principal

Walt Whitman High School

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Image above shows Picture #27 of seam tears in Whitman High School/MSI artificial turf football/soccer field from October 19, 2021 Maintenance Report below: 

Walt Whitman High School - ... by Parents' Coalition of Montg...

Potentially toxic dust cloud from artificial turf field settles over Bethesda neighborhood

BETHESDA, Md. — Video and pictures taken Tuesday by neighbors of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School show clouds of construction dust kicked up by crews placing infill on a new artificial turf field. Grass seed was replaced with materials called zeolite and silica. Safety sheets about those materials state airborne silica may “cause cancer by inhalation.”



https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/bethesda/dust-cloud-bethesda-chevy-chase-high-school-turf/65-f44b3c43-375c-44b5-b3b5-58358d615f93

injuries have continued. Not only are you putting their bodies in danger, you are also putting their futures at risk because their ability to perform is affected. It is unfair for the players that have worked so hard to have their opportunities for college scholarship potentially affected due to MCPS not choosing to do the right thing here.

From Molly Wichenbach public comment.

PUBLIC COMMENTS
BEFORE THE MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION
July 11, 2019

RE: RICHARD MONTGOMERY HIGH SCHOOL’S DEFECTIVE AND DANGEROUS ARTIFICIAL TURF
FROM: JOSEPH P KING, STUDENT

Good evening members of the Board of Education and Superintendent Smith. My name is JOEY King and I am a student from Julius West. My brother is on the Richard Montgomery Football Team and I am here to speak on his behalf since he is at health class this morning.

Since football practice is about to start again, we have all been talking about various home-made padding that we may be able to use to protect his skin, elbows, and legs when practice starts again and during the season.

We were talking about the reports that you also heard about last month at this meeting and also about testimony that you heard last year school year from Molly Winchenbach from the Soccer Team. It seems sad to know that there still hasn’t been commitment by the County to do anything about this during the summer before all the athletes are back on the field. “Looking into it,” was the answer that was given at the last meeting but that is not a good enough answer and probably wouldn’t be one that our teachers would accept if we tried that.

MCPS has already sent out samples of the turf and found clear reasons for the difference between our
field and the other field at Whitman that was replaced recently. This has been known since February.
Can you please tell me, today, a reason that this is being ignored?

• RM’s field is four times the FIFA standard!

Can you please tell me, as I am sure you have found out by now, what was the reason for this?
Who is responsible?
When is it going to be fixed?

MCPS has already verified what was obvious: there is something very wrong with the RM turf and the injuries are too many.
What are you going to do about it?

The band-aid that MCPS came up with last spring did not work. The injuries have continued.
Not only are you putting their bodies in danger, you are also putting their futures at risk because their
ability to perform is affected. It is unfair for the players that have worked so hard to have their
opportunities for college scholarship potentially affected due to MCPS not choosing to do the right thing here.

This cannot be the outcome with which you are satisfied.

I have heard that MCPS is in the investigating the replacement of all or most of the fill in RM’s turf all at once over the summer but, since I haven’t heard more, I am afraid that you have decided to not allocate funds or energy for us.

For the sake of my teammates, I am asking you to ensure this remediation gets done immediately.
Please. Do you agree that you owe it to the students whose health and safety you say are your top
priority.

You know, for fact, that this turf is 4x the standard for abrasiveness.
You know the reasons why it is so abrasive.
You know what you need to do to fix it.
Don’t waste anymore time while more students get hurt.

Please. Do it now.

Thank you.

Board of Ed Releases Only One Page of Three Page February Artificial Turf Report. Report Shows Whitman Got Taller Plastic Grass and ZEOFILL is Abrasive Infill.

Handwritten notations and highlighting have been added. 

The above page from a February Report on artificial turf infill was posted to the Board of Education's Agenda for the June 24, 2019, meeting (video of parent reporting on continuing injuries to athletes from Richard Montgomery HS artificial turf).

Also posted with this page of the Labosport Report was information from MCPS showing which field was referenced by each column of the chart.  We have made notations on the above Report showing which MCPS field the data refers to and what type of infill was used at each field.

Pages 1 and 2 of the Labosport Report were not made public.  

The Labosport Report shows that the Whitman High School artificial turf plastic grass is taller than the plastic grass installed at Richard Montgomery HS and Einstein HS.  The Report also shows that the Richard Montgomery HS infill is highly abrasive.  In addition, in the columns evaluating the ZEOFILL infill we see higher numbers for abrasiveness.

This Report shows that there is increased abrasiveness when ZEOFILL is used in the infill.

Why has the Board of Education been withholding this report from the public since February?  Students continued to use these fields even when the Board of Education KNEW there was a hazardous situation causing injury to students.

When will the Richard Montgomery High School artificial turf infill be REMOVED and REPLACED with a less abrasive infill?
 

RM High School Field Infill is 96% SAND (not the zeolite MCPS claimed would be infill)

The field test report for the new Richard Montgomery High School {RMHS) artificial turf football/soccer field shows the infill used on the field is 96% SAND and only 4% Zeofill.

When the RMHS artificial turf football/soccer field was being replaced, MCPS administrators claimed the infill was going to be zeolite.  The specifications for the project claimed the infill was going to be zeolite/sand.  However, the final infill that is actually on the field is 96% Sand and only 4% Zeofill, more of a sand/zeolite infill as SAND is the predominate infill on the surface of the plastic.

This new information as to the content of the RMHS infill may explain why RMHS athletes were getting injured on the new artificial turf surface.

Richard Montgomery HS ASTM ... by on Scribd

"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.