A Santa Clara County artificial turf softball and soccer field at Twin Creeks Sports Complex in Sunnyvale. (Joseph Geha/KQED)
Citing concerns over equity and access to recreation areas, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday evening abandoned a proposed plan to eventually remove almost all county-owned artificial turf fields and prohibit the installation of new ones.
Amid knotty discussions about the “forever chemicals” often found in synthetic grass fields and the unsettled science about the harm they may be causing to people and the environment, the five-member board rejected the total ban by a 2–3 vote while also voting down two other moderate proposals that allowed for broad exceptions.
The lack of any action means the county will continue to maintain its existing turf fields and consider proposals to install new ones.
The divisive issue has stirred debate among residents and community leaders for months, at times pitting advocates concerned about youth having enough outdoor spaces to recreate against those worried about the health impacts of the chemical compounds the synthetic surfaces are made out of.
“This is something that I have been completely torn on,” District 2 Supervisor Betty Duong said during Tuesday’s meeting before ultimately voting against the proposal. “It is a false choice to balance the wellbeing and immediate access for our children, especially our most underserved communities, with environmental values that we all deserve to have.”
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More than 100 impassioned community members and advocates spoke during the meeting,, including parents, doctors, youth sports coaches and workers who manage the fields.
Board President Otto Lee, a leading champion of the ban, at one point jokingly asked his colleagues if their understanding of an upcoming vote was “clear as mud.”
The balk comes about 10 months after the board first began exploring the issue last spring, twice postponing a vote so county staff could further research the issue.
Despite the failure to pass something, Lee said he doesn’t think the entire effort — including an extensive report examining the potential risks of artificial turf fields — was in vain.
“We tried to make a statement to the community that we want to care about our kids when it comes to using all county property fields,” Lee said. “And at the same time, I do think that the work that we have accomplished from that report is still a public record and that would be used potentially by many other jurisdictions because this is actually a fairly hot issue.”
Some of the staunchest opponents of the proposed ban include local youth sports advocates, who argue it would further limit capacity for crucial outdoor exercise, particularly for lower-income families with less access to decent recreational facilities.
“We have a dire lack of athletic fields in our community, and a grass field, even the best grass field, can be used for maybe 1,000 hours a year, and an artificial turf field can be used for 3,000 hours a year,” said Sandra Todd, a youth soccer coordinator in Sunnyvale, who emphasized the importance of sports in helping kids build life skills and connections to others.
“We have a huge obesity epidemic. We have an isolationist problem where families, children and young adults are feeling more and more isolated from each other and from their community,” she said.
Industry groups also opposed the ban, insisting that manufacturers of synthetic turf are working to minimize or eliminate harmful chemicals in their products and underscoring the water conservation benefits of fake grass.
“Synthetic turf allows families to enjoy its benefits and athletes to play year-round — in contrast, a grass field simply cannot remain usable at the same rate, in the rain, or during the months when grass doesn’t grow,” Melanie Taylor, president and CEO of the Synthetic Turf Council, wrote to the board this week.
But Lee, and Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga, who also supported the ban, both seemed to agree that real grass fields are the superior choice.
“Plastic turf fields are definitely cheaper to maintain, but in life, we also learn that you get what you pay for. Side by side, plastic turf fields are not as good as properly maintained grass fields, and we know that because professional athletes and games are played on grass fields,” Lee said during the meeting.
Noe Guzman, the president of Healing Grove Sports in San José, said he works with “Hispanic kids of color and low-income families” and argued that axing turf fields would be detrimental to youth.
“There are a lot of kids that don’t have a place to play,” Guzman told the board at Tuesday’s meeting. “If you ban this, I guarantee you that you’re going to have a lot of people feeding that pipeline of your incarceration.”
If the proposed ban had passed, it would have had perhaps the biggest impact on the development of a long-envisioned soccer facility at the county-owned fairgrounds that would be managed by the San José Earthquakes, who opposed the measure.
Ground-up tires converted into rubber crumbs are commonly used as infill material on artificial turf fields, like the ones at Twin Creeks Sports Complex in Sunnyvale. (Joseph Geha/KQED)
The most recent public plans call for eight fields on the site, half of them to be used as practice facilities for the team and the other half for public use. Five of the fields at the proposed facility would be artificial turf.
“The proposal to ban turf athletic fields will severely limit needed recreational access for our community, especially our youth,” Jared Shawlee, president of the Earthquakes, told the board. “The reality in our county is that we are one of the most under-resourced metro areas in the country for public field space.”
Partly in response to plans for the new soccer facility, the Santa Clara County Medical Association also weighed in on the debate in recent months, advocating for natural grass fields.
“The SCCMA Environmental Health Committee has carefully examined this issue and strongly
recommends that you do not place artificial turf, but rather require all soccer fields to be natural grass turf, to benefit the health and safety of children, athletes and the environment,” the association wrote to the board last year. “Furthermore, we believe that this decision should apply to all sports fields, including those in schools.”
The county’s 2024 report examining the health risks associated with turf and artificial grass, noted that the fields often contain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are commonly referred to as “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down in the environment, and can last for thousands of years.
The PFAs “contribute to cancer, immune and endocrine dysfunction, impaired development, and overall mortality when they are ingested,” the county’s report said, echoing well-established findings. But it also noted that “it remains uncertain if and to what extent use of artificial turf causes meaningful human exposure to these substances.”
And while some manufacturers have recently claimed to produce turf with no trace of the chemicals, “there is not yet an industry standard to test for and establish the presence of PFAS,” the report said.
The county also considered an option to allow for new turf fields in the future, but only if they are proven to be free of PFAS and use no “infill” material, such as ground-up tires, to help stabilize the turf.
Duong, noting the inconclusive science, said she believes natural grass is the best option but said voting for the ban would send the message that it’s “grass or nothing,” even in some communities where grass isn’t practical.
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“I know that’s not the message we’re trying to put out there today, but in its application, I believe that is the message that will land,” Duong said. “I still believe that the best option is for us to have autonomy, flexibility, and evaluate proposed fields on a case-by-case basis, always looking towards the north star of natural grass first.”
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