It Won't Taste Great

In December 2007, nearly a decade after the city put its first artificial field in a park, the City Council held its first hearing on the use of artificial turf. Benepe showed up to testify, accompanied by Nancy Clark, parks' capital projects boss Amy Freitag and Celia Petersen, the Parks Department's head of specifications and estimates. Benepe described Petersen as "one of the world's experts on synthetic turf." In his testimony, Benepe provided a brief history of artificial turf, noting the desirability of fields that don't require "weekly mowing, watering, fertilizing, seeding, the use of chemical pesticides and herbicides or other time-intensive maintenance tasks."

AstroTurf was "quite durable," Benepe said, but "expensive and not perfect for competitive athletics" because it was "abrasive" and unyielding, making athletes "susceptible to knee injuries." Then came synthetic turf. "This new style of turf is technologically sophisticated," Benepe said, passing around a sample of the "much safer and more resilient" rubber-infill surface made from recycled tires.

"Now this typical artificial-turf field contains several layers, including a bottom layer composed of plastic sheeting, middle layers composed of crushed stone, plastic tubing for drainage and rubber padding for shock absorbance. Much of the value of these fields is actually below the surface," Benepe said.

"I should point out we are far from the only ones using synthetic turf," he continued, counting 150 fields in New Jersey and 30 in Connecticut. A turf craze had taken hold in the suburbs of Westchester County. "They're all sort of in a competition to see who can install more of these fields," Benepe said. Synthetic turf was going down at the new Giants Stadium, and it had already been installed at Rutgers, Columbia and Harvard universities. "If it's good enough for Harvard," said Benepe, "it's good enough for Harlem."

With organized sports more popular than ever, he explained, grass wasn't making the cut. Many more permitted hours were logged at fake fields than grass ones. He claimed natural fields needed to be closed for "at least four or five months—all winter long." (But in response to a City Limits follow-up, the Parks Department did not supply the name of one grass field maintained by the city that is closed for the winter. ) "We love grass," Benepe continued, saying most baseball and softball leagues prefer natural fields, while players of soccer were insisting on artificial turf. "Where we can support natural grass, we do, as in Marcus Garvey Park, where the Harlem Little League plays." He didn't mention that the Harlem Little League, not the city, built and maintained its one grass field.

Synthetic turf was encouraging exercise, Clark said, so the Health Department saw no need for the six-month moratorium being considered by the state legislature. More than half of the city's adults—and almost half of all its children—are obese or overweight, she said. Clark mentioned the report her agency had solicited on existing health studies. "We expect to complete our review by spring 2008 and will share our findings with the public and the Council."

Clark's testimony was followed by that of environmentalists who worried about the leaching of zinc from rubber-infill fields and the effect of storm water runoff on the city's troubled sewer system, youth soccer coaches who favored artificial turf because the city didn't maintain grass, and lawyers who warned about potential liability. Craig Michaels of the nonprofit environmental group Riverkeeper scratched his head over Clark's argument that the PAHs in the turf are already "very common" in the city. "I mean, that is a dangerous position to be taking," he said. "We are exposed to a variety of pollutants in New York City, but that cannot be used as justification to expose ourselves to more." Crain took his turn at the mic.