Maine Legislature to discuss three-year halt on artificial turf installation
Apr. 8—A bill to place a three-year moratorium on the installation or reinstallation of artificial turf on indoor and outdoor playing fields will get its first public hearing Wednesday in a meeting of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
LD 1177, sponsored by Rep. Lori Gramlich, D-Old Orchard Beach, with bipartisan co-sponsoring support from nine other members of Maine's state House and Senate, was submitted on March 20. It asks for a three-year halt on installing any synthetic turf in Maine. That includes replacing existing and worn-out turf and covers both indoor and outdoor spaces. The bill would also require a study of the public health and environmental risks of synthetic turf, often referred to as artificial turf.
The Portland nonprofit Defend Our Health worked with Gramlich to craft the legislation, said Sarah Woodbury, the organization's vice president of policy and advocacy.
Woodbury said synthetic turf often has common toxic materials, including heavy metals like mercury and lead, as well as PFAS, often referred to as "forever chemicals."
"There's all sorts of nasty stuff in this turf, and that's not even looking at the higher incidence of injuries on artificial turf," Woodbury said.
The issue of artificial turf's safety, and whether it can be linked to causing cancer, has been a point of public debate for years.
But in Maine's challenging weather environment, the number of middle and high schools with artificial turf has more than doubled in the last decade. When Massabesic installed its turf in 2016, it was the 16th middle and high school. Now there are 35 middle and high schools with artificial turf fields, and another 20 or so turf fields at Maine colleges, according to Mike Burnham, executive director of the Maine Principals' Association.
Many of those building projects have met with local resistance from groups concerned about environmental damages. But new artificial turf fields have replaced natural grass fields at several high schools in the last five years, including Kenenbunk, Messalonskee in Oakland, Cony in Augusta, and Gardiner.
South Portland will ask voters to choose whether they want to improve the school's athletic complex with a $4.3 million natural grass option, a $5.1 million artificial turf option or no improvements. Other communities that have dealt with or are still grappling with the issue in the past year include Kittery, Cumberland, and the Gray-New Gloucester district. The new professional men's soccer team, the Portland Hearts of Pine, paid to replace the old artificial turf field at city-owned Fitzpatrick Stadium in Portland with a new artificial playing surface.
"It's just adding more toxic plastics in the world, and we don't need that," Woodbury said. "The argument we hear a lot of times is, 'It's not that big a deal, we've been using them for 50 years, we're fine.' We're not that fine. It's more body burden."
Woodbury said she anticipates doctors from the Maine chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility will speak in favor of the bill, along with several concerned parents.
A key component of the bill is having the Department of Environmental Protection complete a thorough study of the available research to determine the impact of synthetic turf fields during the proposed three-year moratorium. It would not require that existing synthetic turf fields be removed.
"We think it's important, at the very least, to bring public awareness to these concerns," Woodbury said.
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