Portola Valley School District ponders how to cut water use

The schools may want to consider a move to artificial turf. The material looks fantastic, uses no water and allows more use than grass since it is not torn up by playing in the rain and mud.

If by "fantastic" you mean "plastic looking and hideous", I wholeheartedly agree.

it turns out artificial turf does need watering. just look at what's going on in san carlos: Web Link not to mention the arsenic, mercury and lead found in them. i'll stick with grass, thanks.

The PV town council owes the community a mea culpa after its last minute change of heart about the priory's turf plan. The priory is likely in the same boat and was trying to take steps years ago to reduce its water consumption by installing turf. The town changed its mind on the subject at the last minute - a decision which surely seems flawed in retrospect. Somehow I doubt we will see any of the planning board or town council members who presided over the questionable decision issue an apology to the priory community.

Pondering is for plodders. This can't have taken them by surprise. The district should've implemented better water use systems years ago. The West is prone to drought, and they know that.

Simple solution = let the grass die. Problem solved.

Good grief what a bunch of fear mongering. Lead! Arsenic! Mercury! Evidence of such? Virtually every peer reviewed article published in reputable environmental journals validate that modern turf fields do not have higher levels of any these than are found in the natural background environment.

And that's with the recycled tire crumb in-fill that is sometimes used. To combat this exact political (not evidence based) point, installations have switched to using recycled shoe in-soles which already conform to stricter clothing product safety standards or completely organic products such as coconut husks.

So, we talk about the San Carlos field requiring watering. Yes, they use some water to keep the coconut husk in-fill hydrated. Clever to ignore that hydration requires less than one tenth of the water as a conventional grass field.

And at the same time folks have absolutely no problem flushing tons of algae producing nitrogen fixed fertilizers into the local creeks and drainages. And where does that fertilizer come from? Is it magic? No, they have to pump tons of green house inducing methane from natural gas out of the ground. The CH4 is converted to H2, Carbon Monoxide, and Carbon Dioxoide as the first steps to producing Urea and Ammonia for fertilizer production. But it helps plants grow, so it must be green and clean!

fwiw:

there you go putting forth facts again. Don't you know the scientifically illiterate would rather remain that way?

" i'll stick with grass, thanks."

Uh, no, you won't. This is a desert in the middle of drought, whether you believe worsened by climate change or not. You have a choice: dead grass or turf.

Grass fields also produce more injuries, with uneven playing surfaces (divots, gopher holes, a much less forgiving surface than turf, etc..) Ask any ref or umpire which is easier to work upon.

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