(Editor's note: The following article appears originally in Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin' s newsletter "Making it Work.")

On April 13, the council approved an ordinance moving forward $24.2 million to begin construction on 29 projects designated for funding from the 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy. The $24.2 million, which represents the first installment of $145 million in levy funding approved by Seattle voters last November, will target development and renovation projects that can quickly move from the final design to construction phase, thereby enabling the city to leverage the levy to create jobs and stimulate the local economy.

Among the projects in the ordinance are installing synthetic turf at Delridge Playfield, Genesee Playfield Number 1, and two Lower Woodland Park Playfields.  The parks department currently has synthetic turf at 10 fields around the city, and has been planning to gradually convert its most heavily used fields to this over time. 

These four conversion projects were named and included in the list of projects submitted to and approved by the voters by a 60 percent margin in the November, 2008 Parks for All Levy.  In this ordinance, the council advanced money to get these 29 named and designed projects implemented as quickly as possible.  We had three goals for this legislation:

1. To get projects that are ready to go in place as rapidly as possible so that the community can benefit from them.

2. To use this funding to provide jobs and economic activity in the city.

3. To take advantage of the current favorable bidding climate to get projects completed while saving money for the taxpayers (the most favorable bid on a recent renovation for the Hiawatha Playfield came in 30 percent under the budget, and every bidder was at least 10 percent below the project's estimated cost).

Some community members have raised concerns about the environmental and health impacts of continuing to install synthetic turf.  The council takes these concerns very seriously, and asked the parks department and council central staff to review the current literature on lead and toxics in synthetic turf prior to moving forward with additional installations.

The reviews indicate that there were problems with earlier versions of synthetic turf, including possibly one Seattle field installed in 2001, which the parks department will test and clean up.  However, current turf has eliminated the use of lead, and has reduced or eliminated other potentially toxic chemicals as well. 

Seattle's vendor for synthetic turf has certified that their products contain no lead at concentrations that exceed background levels, and has provided a warranty that it will replace any elements that are found to have lead.

King County monitors its synthetic turf installations, and has generally not found detectible levels of toxics, with any toxics detected being in concentrations that do not exceed water quality standards.  Current literature and a recent court proceeding on Bainbridge Island have all confirmed that the levels of toxics in synthetic turf do not exceed current safety standards and are similar to background levels.

The council intends to remain vigilant about this issue, and has worked with the parks department to develop a monitoring protocol for runoff from synthetic fields to ensure that there are no future problems.  Background levels will also be monitored, as unfortunately the runoff from our road and street surfaces is the major source of toxic contaminants in surface water.

Synthetic turf ensures that surfaces that receive heavy use do not deteriorate.  On athletic fields it replaces grass surfaces, which are not only unusable much of the year in our climate, but require expensive maintenance as well as the use of fertilizers, mowing equipment, and sometimes pesticides, all of which can lead to water quality problems.

Email council president Conlin at richard.conlin@seattle.gov or call 684-8805.