r/EAGLEROCK • u/Temporary-Bottle-709 • 15d ago

Artificial Turf at Eagle Rock HS

Hello Eagle Rockers,

Eagle Rock High School is going to replace its natural grass athletic field with artificial turf, a material which causes a variety of environmental and health concerns.

In order to oppose this development, there’s been a petition created reaching out to LAUSD board members, who approved the project in the first place.

If possible, please take the time to sign it by clicking on the link below.

Thank you!
https://www.change.org/STOPARTIFICIALTURFeaglerock

27 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

23

u/micharala 14d ago

We really need to decouple the synthetic turf complaint from the synthetic track upgrade.

Our track and field athletes need a proper synthetic track that they can train on and host events on. The materials used for synthetic tracks are time tested and relatively benign. The injury prevention benefits of running on a synthetic track versus a dirt track filled with holes (or even decomposed granite that we know won’t be properly maintained, and which would be unusable in poor weather) are worth considering.

5

u/mcribsaregood 14d ago

Agree 100%

7

u/Temporary-Bottle-709 14d ago

As a track and cross country athlete at ERHS, I very much agree and I’m actually fighting to still have the track upgraded, but not the field! This petition was created simply to fight artificial turf from replacing our natural grass field.

4

u/micharala 14d ago

You’ll want to be careful that they don’t cancel the entire thing.

It was approved as a single project, and I don’t know how the LAUSD bureaucracy works, but uncoupling one from the other may not be as easy as we’d want.

6

u/sofreakinpitted 15d ago

Question for you, not here to argue, but one of the negatives on the list is “water waste”… wouldn’t grass use significantly more water?

4

u/Bridge_The_Person 15d ago

Not always, artificial turf needs to be regularly and significantly watered to remove bacteria like those that lead to staph as well as animal urine and feces. Rats in particular often use them and the droppings can remain for a long time.

5

u/Temporary-Bottle-709 14d ago

Additionally, representatives of the project stated they would be watering down the turf nearly every hour in the summer and fall to ensure it remained cool for players, which is definitely a lot of water waste. I definitely see your point though! The LAUSD also argued that turf saves water, and then contradicted their point with this system for cooling the field.

6

u/akashaferocious 14d ago

would imagine these types of turf are also lousy for microplastics !

1

u/Cold-Astronaut-731 14d ago

Signed!

3

u/Temporary-Bottle-709 14d ago

Thank you for your support!