Tussle over turf in Dorval

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

Trees and health are at the centre of concerns a group of Dorval residents has raised about the artificial soccer turf being installed near the city’s Sarto Desnoyers Community Centre.

“Global warming is an issue. We can’t say it’s not happening,” said long-time Dorval resident and environmental activist Marita Kehr. “Once the trees are gone, we’ll just be left with an open field.”

Kehr said she was shocked to see crews cutting down trees – about seven of which will have to go -- at the site last week, and insisted they stop. The work was temporarily put on hold, and Kehr and a group of concerned citizens met with Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau last Wednesday to speak about the $2.1 million project that the provincial government is contributing $800,000 to. However, workers were back at the site on Monday morning.

On top of losing the trees, Kehr said she is concerned about two things: the dangers artificial turf made of recycled rubber pellets may pose, and that Dorval residents may not have all the information about what is going on.

“They’re outraged. They don’t know about it,” she said of the reaction she has received.

Speaking on a personal level, Dorval Horticultural and Ecology Society President Marthe Couture said she is also concerned residents might not be informed.

“I wonder if the people realize what the implications are, if they realize we are going to lose a number of very old trees, and that artificial turf is a contested issue,” Couture said. For example, a study conducted by Dr. William Crane of City College of New York and Dr. Junfeng Zhang of Rutgers University determined the artificial turf in Manhattan's Riverside Park contained polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and toxic metals. However, other experts -- like McGill University chemistry professor David Harp who was quoted in the Dec. 12 issue of The Chronicle– are not convinced of the dangers.

“I’ve not heard of any significant harm that has come out of toxic emanations,” he said. His colleague, Professor Ariel Fenster, also added the amount of rubber deposited on our roads from tire residue is much higher than in artificial turf.

“Perhaps there is no danger with artificial turf,” Couture added. “I just think they should be aware of these two issues (the loss of the trees and questions about the turf).”

Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau said the city always tries to avoid cutting down any tress.

“But you get some cases where you don’t have a choice. And when this happens, what we do is we always replant,” he said, adding most of the seven trees that need to be removed for the soccer field would have been cut down in the following years.

“Specialists told us some of those trees would have died anyway, in maybe five to 10 years. So, we would have probably had to cut them anyway,” Rouleau said, adding the city will plant 21 new trees in the area to compensate for the loss. “When these situations come up, we always replant.”

Rouleau said Dorval is going with artificial turf, because it is much easier to maintain than a natural field, and it extends the soccer season by two to three months.

“We have a natural turf beside it (the planned artificial one). We repair every fall, and in one month there’s no grass by the goal nets and the middle of the field,” he said, adding the city’s fields are over-used, and the new addition will help relieve some of the pressure.

Kehr said she would have liked to see the city relocate the field to an area where no trees need to be cut down – like near Millennium Park, for example – and go with natural turf.

“There is such a huge field there and it could be an alternative to put a soccer field there,” she said.

But Rouleau maintains the site chosen for the project is the best way to go: there are already facilities at the Sarto Desnoyers Community Centre, such as washrooms and parking space, that do not exist around other spots the city considered. The planned field location is also easily accessible to everyone, he said.

As for the materials used, Rouleau said he believes artificial turf is a good decision.

“The old (artificial turf) technology that they’re evaluating and thinking about closing in the States, that has been changed now,” he said, adding there is no proof modern artificial turf poses any health risks. “If there were a doubt tomorrow, sure, we would re-evaluate the whole thing. But I don’t think there’s a reason now, or enough studies showing it is dangerous, to really stop it.”