To the Editor
Residents in the river towns have a stake in whether the Hastings-on-Hudson School District succeeds in bringing soon-to-be-banned chemicals to that village.
Artificial turf with PFAS has been banned for sale in New York State effective December 31, 2026. The Hastings school district is trying to beat the deadline. If successful, artificial turf with soon-to-be outlawed chemicals would be laid down at two playing fields there before year’s end.
This is not an issue for village residents only. The plastic blades carrying the contaminants are known to migrate, which would endanger our common watershed. The PFO’s in the turf the school district wants to bring in tested at 147 times the EPA’s legally enforceable drinking water limit of 4 ppt. PFOA’s were detected in every single sample of the tested turf. The EPA’s health goal for PFOA’s is zero. Because the Hudson is “the river that flows both ways,” residents north and south of the village would be exposed.
Hastings’ Board of Education last year promised if their artificial turf bond proposition was approved, the turf would have “zero PFAS.” By the narrowest of margins the proposition passed (it would have been defeated by a shift of 36 votes). The Board’s promise was formalized in the bid specifications which contains a “PFAS Prohibition.” The bidder chosen by the Board did not (and reportedly cannot) comply with the “PFAS Prohibition” requirement, and so the validity of the Board’s vote to approve the bid has been called into question in public meetings. One can only hope the Board will reverse course.
More information is available on the website https://hastingsturffacts.netlify.app/
Rabbi Mark Sameth
Hastings-on-Hudson
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