Overview:
California’s new crusade against artificial turf could prevent all Santa Barbara schools from replacing their synthetic grass
UC Santa Barbara just got caught in the crossfire of a turf war.
The Gauchos, which expected to open their baseball season on a new field in 10 weeks, were ambushed Wednesday when the California Coastal Commission drew a line in the sand against artificial sport turf.
One commissioner then took that stick and plunged it into their environment-loving heart with an admonishment that was as out of line as the one they drew with the decision.
“We gave you time to work with us and you chose not to,” commissioner Donne Brownsey sniffed before her vote helped quash the project. “And then there’s a hardcore press for us to make a decision because you’ve got your back up to the baseball season.
“Well, you should’ve thought about that when you didn’t provide the information that we asked you for.”
That false observation came from either ignorance or political deceit.
Here’s the straight poop that, incidentally, will be injected into our water systems now that UCSB must continue dousing its grass baseball field with fertilizer and persticides:
The crusade against ALL artificial turf became a mission of the State of California two months ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation that permits local governments to ban synthetic grass in neighborhoods.
Steve Hudson, the Coastal Commission’s deputy district director for the South Central Coast, acknowledged on Wednesday that, “Use of artificial turf has become an emerging issue for our staff.”
This should be a cautionary tale for every other school in the coastal zone when it comes time to replace their own artificial turf.
It will most assuredly turn the playing fields of Santa Barbara into another dust bowl, with all the football, soccer, lacrosse and track teams that will be overusing them.
UCSB, which skinned the natural grass off its field nearly four months ago, was caught naked by an abrupt switch of policy that de-emphasizes water conservation.
It may be raining now, California, but good luck when the next severe drought leaves you high and dry.
Or have the California Sierra Club and Coastal Commission now switched sides to the climate-change deniers?
Watered Down
The three acres of grass at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium requires 2.28 million gallons of potable water and 2.3 million gallons of reclaimed water per year.
An artificial surface would have needed just 12,000 gallons of potable water.
Commissioner Catherine Rice put that into perspective when she noted that the average household water use in California is about 30,000 gallons a year.
“So take the potable water off the field as an issue (against UCSB),” she said.
This isn’t to ignore the problem of microplastics entering our ecosystem. But launching your attack against a fully cooperative university instead of the industries that truly pollute is a horrible way to market a declaration of war.
It’s like squashing a ladybug to deal with a swarm of locusts.
The situation reminds me of Jerry Tarkanian’s reaction when the late UNLV basketball coach learned that $10,000 had fallen out of an envelope headed to a Kentucky recruit’s father.
“The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, they’re going to give Cleveland State another year of probation,” he said.
I’ve closely followed this process ever since an objection from the California Sierra Club took the project off the Coastal Commission’s consent calendar in September.
At that time, UCSB had heard nary a discouraging word about a turf project that was more environmentally protective than the football fields approved earlier at Santa Barbara City College and every one of the area’s public high schools.
Throughout the fall, UCSB responded to questions from the commission staff at least four times that I know about.
It was made plain during Wednesday’s meeting in Santa Cruz that there was no scientific data available for the questions that UCSB couldn’t answer.
Hudson specified two issues to which the university did not respond: The breakdown rate of the blades of artificial grass, which would then enter the environment, and how UCSB would deal with the “wind-born transport” of those particles.
Hudson admitted to Rice that his staff also couldn’t find any study that showed breakdown rates or ways to control “wind-born transport.”
It’s clear that the only way UCSB would’ve gotten this project approved is if it built a dome over Uyesaka Stadium.
A Staff’s Upper Lip
And yet, Brownsey pointed an accusatory finger directly at UCSB and its director of athletics, Kelly Barsky.
“Today, you presented a lot of information from the industry and from others who support this project, but you didn’t work with our staff before this hearing,” Brownsey said.
“Our staff will bend over backward to find a way to look at the scientific information, evaluate it and try to come up with the mutually acceptable decision.”
But the only bending backward I detected during the entire process was done by Barsky and her staff.
And all it served was setting them up to be knocked on their rear ends by an NFL-quality stiff arm.
The Coastal Commission voted 10-0, with one abstention, to approve the turf project only if UCSB used natural grass instead of an artificial surface.
Even Rice voted against UCSB, although with the hope that “this project comes back to us.”
Me thinks one session of water torture will be enough for Barsky and crew.
She and her staff worked tirelessly to ensure that the new field would reach the gold standard of environmentally safe surfaces.
They picked a product that was baseball-specific, with a root zone technology that keeps the infill from migrating or splashing when it’s trod upon.
It was certified to have been made with no PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), which are human-made chemicals that don’t break down easily.
The infill would have consisted of environmentally safe wood particles instead of the typical crumb rubber.
But the Coastal Commission turned a deaf ear to their data and accepted the dissenting views of several opponents of synthetic grass.
That became obvious when commissioner Dayna Bocho spoke about her own experience with an artificial lawn.
“I bought a house last year and it has this stuff, and I was really, really excited because I live in a drought area … I live in Los Angeles,” she said. “And then what I found out was that it’s loaded with chemicals.
“And it gets so hot in the summer that you can’t walk barefoot in your own backyard. I’m very serious, after this, thinking of replacing it because I don’t see this as an environmental asset.”
Comparing apples to atom bombs would have made as much sense.
The Enemy Within
The irony is that UCSB considers both the Sierra Club and the Coastal Commission to be its partners in environmental stewardship.
It’s why UCSB invested millions of dollars in the creation of the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management in 1991.
Barsky took the defeat like a good environmental soldier when I unsuccessfully sought her outrage.
She accepted the news and Brownsey’s lash with nary a whimper or harsh word for the Coastal Commission.
“Certainly, we’re disappointed,” she said, “but we’re focused now on pivoting and getting the field ready and having a great season. I think that’s the reality of where we are now.”
The many hard-working Santa Barbarans who donated to the $2.8 million project don’t feel as charitable to the Coastal Commission or its staff.
The grass certainly won’t be greener on the other side for UCSB and its efforts at water conservation.
That switch defeats the project’s main goal, which was to address the field’s “impermeable” soil when it rains.
“Last year, we canceled 20% of our home games due to playing conditions,” Gaucho coach Andrew Checketts told the commissioners on Wednesday.
Now he just hopes UCSB can adjust its drainage, irrigation and sodding plans in time for the Gauchos’ Feb. 23 home opener against Sacramento State.
Workouts are to begin even sooner, on Jan. 7.
“We’re working on that,” Barsky said. “We’re looking at a thick cut sod, which they put on fields all the time and are playable pretty quickly.
“We’re working as fast as possible to have the least amount of impact on any training. I don’t have all the details right now because that was a lot to take in the last few days.”
Having the rug pulled out from under you will do that.