Letter to the Editor: A Better Idea for CVU
Opponent of proposed privately financed artifical turf field for CVU offers a solution: grass.
By Jennifer Decker
Hinesburg
Dear CVU students and families,
The community is invested in finding a solution to increase students’ play and practice time. Many of us want a better approach to grass field management with improved drainage. Real grass fields will be less expensive, and far less risky, than artificial turf. We can do better for student athletes, while ensuring that the water we drink at home and school is not contaminated with toxins that cause infertility, cancer, and developmental disabilities.
Plastic turf manufacturers have a reputation for putting profits ahead of community safety. The company attempting to do business with CVU High School was covered in the Philadelphia Inquirer: Amid a battle over turf plans for FDR Park, experts say claims of PFAS-free fake grass are misleading (July 26, 2024) …“The Inquirer contacted the three companies that the city is considering, FieldTurf, Shaw Sports Turf and Sprinturf … The newspaper wanted to test samples of the companies’ turf for PFAS. None of the three companies responded.”
If a company has nothing to hide, they will be transparent. Instead, at the “Community Field Project” meeting last week, we were denied a reasonable request for a sample for an independent test.
The manufacturers' typical marketing strategy is to rely on white papers that review the presence of only 40 out of 15,000 different PFAS chemicals, and call that research. The industry standard of measurement creates an inaccurate perception that plastic grass has no forever chemicals. The company white papers also claim that they recycle old product, but Philadelphia Inquirer coverage tells us that promised artificial turf recycling plants do not actually exist. The industry claims that they build surfaces that filter water effectively, when in fact, plastic fields can flood, and are considered impervious by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This is not the first time that the synthetic turf field industry has been implicated in greenwashing. And, the EPA is now considering expanding protections to prevent microplastics from getting into our drinking water, making any long-term investment in plastic turf fields unsustainable.
Fields that were installed in the Vermont towns prior to Jan. 1, 2026, were not subject to Act 131, which went into effect three months ago. This law was passed to protect young people from the worst sources of PFAS exposure, including car seats, menstrual products, cosmetics, artificial turf, and ski wax, among other things.
Issues with synthetic turf also include: a higher rate of concussions and lower body injuries including torn meniscus and ankle injuries. Toxins in artificial turf become airborne and can be absorbed through your skin. Goalies and football players are at greatest risk of exposure. The microplastics from the grass blades that break off get into groundwater. The fake “dirt” infill contains 95 different carcinogens. Younger kids are most at risk due to leaching into town drinking water. New studies show that PFAS affects bone development. If we choose a solution to play time that results in preventable disease and disabilities, this affects not just the physical health, but the mental health of our community.
I love spectator and team sports. I used to play soccer, and preferred to play on grass. Many professional athletes feel the same way, and don’t want to harm the environment, or their bodies. Games and practices may be canceled when it is 87 degrees or more outside; turf creates a heat island effect. Athletes can get heat stroke. At the school library forum, Field Turf representatives did not take climate change into consideration when answering about limitations on field time dictated by the temperature of the playing surface.
A student who wrote The Record mentioned that he does not have all the facts. It bothers me to know that there has been company propaganda in the school lobby this year denying the dangers of artificial turf. I believe that an educational institution, particularly one funded by the taxpayers who voted against artificial turf twice in 2013 and 2015, ought to have presented both sides to the school community all year long.
Because the maintenance, replacement, and student injury costs are prohibitive, and because democracy is essential, I believe that the school district and town of Hinesburg owe it to voters to find a way to put this question on the ballot. While wealthy donors attempt to bypass democracy, the town and the school will not want the liability associated with contaminating town water. The school district is legally responsible for any type of harm about which they were made aware in advance of this imprudent project.
I hope the community, including CVU athletes, will watch the informational panel from this past Friday. [Editor’s note: Link to video of event here.] I'd like to encourage students to consider getting involved with stopping artificial turf, to help advocate for real grass field solutions that protect our collective well-being and offer better opportunities for play and practice time. Let’s work together to ask funders to contribute to an improved grass field. With a $5 million gift, the school board could encourage the use of real grass and improve more than just one field at CVU, making sports accessible to more student athletes.