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Opponents Concerned About Environmental And Health Impacts Of BCC Turf Field

Jim Levulis
/
WAMC

Opponents of an artificial turf field on the Berkshire Community College campus are raising concerns about environmental and health impacts they believe will be created by the project. They spoke at a meeting Monday night.Berkshire Community College and the citizen group driving the athletic turf field held a community forum on the project during which opponents made sure their concerns were heard. The West Street project involves replacing BCC’s current lighted grass field with an artificial turf field for lacrosse, soccer and football complete with a grandstand, efficient lighting and a concession stand. Mike MacDonald is one of about 20 people including area coaches, athletic directors and elected officials who make up the citizen group driving the idea. He says Berkshire County is the only county in Massachusetts without a publicly accessible turf field, creating disadvantages for area high school teams playing in the late fall and early spring.

“I’ve had situations where my son’s playing football against another Berkshire County team in the playoffs and we have to go to Westfield, Chicopee or Woburn to do that,” MacDonald said. “This facility will eliminate that and provide a safer playing surface for a longer period of the year.”

The 8-acre project would cost roughly $2 million. The state has approved $1.1 million in funding while the city of Pittsfield would provide $200,000. The rest would be privately raised. Apart from the sports side of the coin, work around the field is meant to improve surrounding wetlands damaged during earlier work as noted by BCC President Ellen Kennedy.

“To put this project together we actually went well above and beyond what the requirements would have been for this kind of project because it had a history and there were concerns about the environmental impact and the problems that ensued from the work that had happened in the late 1990s,” Kennedy said. “We wanted to make sure when we did this project that we not only did a great job with the work we are doing now, but we mitigated the issues that had happened from the efforts that took place a long time ago.”

Emily Stockman, a wetland scientist involved in the project, says work in 2001 reduced the area’s watershed from 14 acres to 1.6 acres. By regrading slopes and improving drainage the proposed project is meant to bring that number to 11 acres. She says the depth of vernal pools, breeding grounds for salamanders and frogs, also decreased because of the earlier work.

Although it is a community project, as the host site, BCC’s environmental faculty has been involved over the past three years on the project. The Pittsfield Conservation Commission approved the project in April. An opponent group is appealing the commission’s decision to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection. Carol Zullo, of West Street, is concerned about the field’s rubber infill flowing downhill into the wetlands.

“They say ‘Oh it’s not going to be carried by water,’” Zullo said. “It can be carried mechanically by foot traffic almost definitely, but it’s going to be carried by water too.”

Eric Bernardin of the design firm Fuss & O’Neill says water from West Street, at a higher elevation, would flow away from the field into the watershed. The field would also be perched up about a foot. He says the field can handle 10.5 inches of rain that will filter down through the field and infiltrate into the soil. Zullo, who says she is pro-sports, says more studies need to be done on whether the rubber infill, usually recycled tires, is dangerous to the human body. Some reports have drawn a link between cancer and playing on similar artificial fields.

“Who’s going to be using the field?” Zullo brought up. “Mainly 4- to 17-year-olds. Who is more susceptible and vulnerable to these toxins? Kids.”

MacDonald says the turf field committee has specified that a coated crumb rubber or Nike grind, recycled sneakers, be used on the field. 

“The concerns that they have, we have had during the course of planning this project,” MacDonald said. “Each time we’ve had them, we’ve investigated, did our homework and we feel that we’ve come up with a rational and supportable solution to each of those problems.”

Mountain View Landscapes and Lawncare won the project bidding at $2.2 million, according to MacDonald. He says if the appeal process lasts longer than 30 days, bidding may need to be reopened. MacDonald says an additional $550,000 would be raised to cover the replacement of the field’s surface eight to 12 years after its installation. A $7,000 annual maintenance budget is included in the project cost.

Jim is WAMC’s Associate News Director and hosts WAMC's flagship news programs: Midday Magazine, Northeast Report and Northeast Report Late Edition. Email: jlevulis@wamc.org
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