To the editor:

Collectively, as a town, I hope we will unequivocally vote NO on local ballot questions #9 and #10. Covering our open spaces with carpets of plastic turf contradicts what Barrington has been working towards: a more resilient, climate-ready, and healthy future for this generation and the next. 

Three years ago, our Town Council passed the Resilient Future Resolution; earlier this fall, the Town planted the new Resilience Garden at the Barrington Government Center, and just two weeks ago, the current Town Council adopted the Ready & Resilient Barrington plan. Among other things, this newly adopted plan calls for the Town to reduce and divert solid waste by reducing our use of plastics and preventing landfill waste. Voting to blanket athletic fields with petroleum-based plastics that must be replaced every few years does not promote a resilient future, not in terms of environmental health and not in terms of human health.

While I agree with the sentiment of the youth sports signees' letter on artificial turf, their position is woefully uninformed. As they said, ‘Let’s give our children the best opportunities to stay active, develop their skills, and be part of a thriving athletic community’, but I would like to add that we should be sure our children can undertake these activities in open spaces that do not expose them to plastics and other unhealthy materials and will not increase our collective carbon footprint. 

Can you imagine the plastic exposure when a youth athlete gets a ‘strawberry’ embedded with plastic turf pellets or when they land face first in a rough play and breathe in plastic dust? And where do broken plastic grass “blades” land when they blow away in the wind after being ripped off in routine play? These plastic blades can degrade into microplastics and enter the local environment.

There are many reasons to vote no on local ballot questions #9 and #10. Voting “No” means those funds are available for improvements and maintenance across all of our fields and not spent on a single artificial turf field, which will lead to high maintenance costs and volumes of waste, not to mention human and environmental health impacts.

Dr. Kelly Reiss

Barrington

Kelly Reiss is the chairperson of the Barrington Open Space Committee.