Board Of Health May Consider Ban On Turf Fields

The Board of Health voted on Thursday to schedule a special meeting to discuss potential action on synthetic turf days after the School Committee voted 4-1 to endorse a proposal to renovate the high school’s athletic complexes with a turf field and a synthetic track.

Towards the end of a lengthy discussion at the Board of Health’s regularly scheduled meeting, Nantucket Land and Water Council environmental program coordinator Willa Arsenault urged the Board to circumvent the School Committee’s decision by banning turf fields, citing concerns surrounding the so-called “forever chemicals” known as PFAS and other potentially harmful substances.

“We’re asking the Board of Health to consider formal action to prohibit the installation of synthetic turf materials on Nantucket, based on documented and yet unresolved risks to groundwater and water quality,” she said. “This request is made with urgency following the School Committee’s vote this week to move forward with the installation at Vito Capizzo Stadium. Given this decision, it’s important that the Board of Health exercise its independent authority to evaluate and act on risks to drinking water resources.”

The Board of Health then voted to schedule a meeting to discuss next steps, including potentially regulatory action.

Board of Health chair Ann Smith said the meeting was needed “to consider how to go forward” and get “everybody together in a sort of round table.”

“The end goal is for the Board of Health to be able to make a decision on what sort of action it should or should not take relative to the installation of this field,” Smith said.

Speaking after the meeting, Smith clarified that a ban on synthetic turf was “a possibility,” but explained that the Board of Health wasn’t leaning toward or against a ban and that nothing had been pre-judged.

Board of Health member Kerry McKenna also explicitly referred to the possibility of “drafting a regulation” regarding turf.

If the Board of Health does take action to ban synthetic turf, it would amount to a very rare instance of one of Nantucket’s major government Boards overturning the decision of another.

The Board of Health initially voted 4-1 in favor of a motion to open a public hearing, with Select Board representative Tom Dixon opposed. But, facing pressure to draft regulations for turf fields before the hearing, given that public hearings are intended for specific proposals or projects under consideration, the Board backtracked, reconsidered their motion, and then voted along the same lines to schedule a special meeting instead.

The special meeting will be held “at the earliest possible opportunity,” but it is unlikely that any proposed regulatory changes will be ready before the Town Meeting warrant closes on January 21st.

According to data compiled by School Committee member Vince Murphy and vetted by the Current, comments in support of turf have outnumbered those in support of natural grass by more than four to one throughout the debate.

But the Board of Health’s meeting featured the most significant opposition to turf of any meeting to date. Several scientists, doctors, and concerned community members pressed the Board of Health to take action, highlighting concerns about turf, including high temperatures, microplastics, and PFAS.

“I have yet to review a complete and correct lab report that shows that any of these alleged PFAS-free fields are PFAS-free,” Dr. Kyla Bennett, a scientist who has done significant work on PFAS in turf and authored studies on the topic, said. “You have a sole-source aquifer. If this turf has PFAS, which I believe it does, it will contaminate that groundwater.”

The School Committee’s Tuesday decision reversed an earlier vote for a similar plan with a grass field. The School Committee was convinced by arguments from the vast majority of coaches, parents, and students who weighed in on the proposal and advocated for turf, as well as a report from the consulting firm Weston and Sampson that referenced several tests paid for by turf manufacturers showing little to no PFAS in their products.

“We have seen, quite specifically, that the PFAS issue is not there,” Murphy said. “It's not just science. It's school-need, student-need, children's-need, and economic relevance.”

Dr. Tim Lepore was the lone dissenting vote on the School Committee.

“I would be very much in favor of a track, but I think I am opposed to the turf field. I think that we can do a better job with grass,” Lepore said, raising concerns about PFAS and microplastics. “I appreciate the students' concerns, and I appreciate the students' wants, but I don't think in the long term that this is the way to go.”

It is unclear where the members of the Board of Health fall on the issue, though Tim Lepore’s daughter, Meredith Lepore, who sits on the Board, has previously expressed her opposition.

During the Board of Health’s meeting, Kate Garrette, an outspoken advocate of turf, pushed for Meredith Lepore to recuse herself from the issue, given her role as a school nurse.

Select Board member Tom Dixon, who is also a member of the Board of Health, suggested his support for the project at a recent Select Board discussion on the topic.

“I kind of think about this very similar to what happened last week with Our Island Home, which was a sizeable slice of the community said that they wanted a chance to vote on it,” he said. “I think this needs to go to the voters and be considered by the whole town because it is important for the students and the community alike.”

The project will need the support of two-thirds of Town Meeting voters and a majority of voters at the ballot box this spring to pass.

The project is now expected to cost over $25 million. At first, the cost of the athletic complex renovation was estimated at $15 to $18 million. That estimate then jumped to $23 million. Now it has increased again.

“We have some difficult decisions with overloading the warrant…with things that are going to add to the tax bill,” Select Board chair Dawn Hill said.

The Select Board didn’t decide on whether to back the plan at its meeting on Wednesday, but several Select Board members suggested their support.

“We’ve put the kids and the seniors aside for a number of years. Let’s do these two [projects],” Hill said, referring to the playing fields and a $135 million proposal for a new Our Island Home nursing facility that the Select Board agreed to include on the Town Meeting warrant last week.

Many of the same individuals who advocated for a turf field before the School Committee over the last several months reiterated their support at the Select Board and Board of Health’s meetings.

“This project was developed out of necessity,” island resident and parent Graham Veysey said. “We need to come together as a community and agree that our students and facilities must be safe.”