Plastic grass has far-reaching implications

Editor,

This week Seattle Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds will make a decision regarding installing plastic turf on Loyal Heights Playfield. Although Loyal Heights is just a drop in the overall Seattle Parks Department's bucket of proposals, the implications are far more reaching.

I, and most other citizens of our city, celebrate the Mayor's work to curb global warming. I am proud to live in a city guided by the mayor's leadership in efforts like this. However, the paving of our playfields with plastic seems inconsistent with these environmental endeavors.

Artificial grass has been, or will be, installed in 25 playfields in our city. The paving of playfields with plastic grass, completed or projected, throughout the City will result in:

70.5 acres of plastic grass; the loss of oxygen production for 4935 people; the loss of 14.1 tons of airborne-particulate filtering per year; the loss of 58.5 tons of carbon dioxide absorption per year; and the paving of 775.5 tons of unrecyclable plastic and 5680 tons of ground-up tires as in-fill material.

Likewise, the process of community involvement in the planning for artificial grass was flawed.

The Joint Athletic Field Development Program (JAFDP) was created in 1997 with extensive community involvement. It, however, only mentions "improvements" to Loyal Heights Playfield. The Pro-Parks Levy was passed in 2000 with a similar description: "To upgrade and improve play surfaces" at Loyal Heights.

The JAFPD was updated in 2002; the only community involvement being "the department mailed a survey to user groups" with a 23 percent response. "User groups" did not include neighbors or other non-organized league users of the playfields. The 2002 JAFPD Update then mandated, without community involvement, paving Loyal Heights with plastic grass, holding out that "The actual scope of work will be determined through a public involvement process."

The next thing we heard from Parks was in the first scoping meeting on March 1, 2005. The Parks Project Manager stated, "The field will be upgraded with synthetic turf." She agreed that synthetic turf is "a done deal."

Its important to note that the City Council "chose to purposefully not adopt the JAFDP", as Councilman David Della wrote in his letters and emails to concerned neighbors.

For those who love and use Loyal Heights playfield for so many more things than organized league games, it is crunch time. Please write Mr. Bounds and the Mayor asking them to at least postpone the decision to pave Loyal Heights Playfield until all alternatives are explored. There are year-round, water-saving natural grass athletic playfields now in use throughout the United States.

Kevin Donnelly

Loyal Heights