A new study from the University of British Columbia has found that artificial turf fields can be potentially deadly for coho salmon.
The turf fields are filled with crumb rubber, which is made from ground-up tires.
While recycling thousands of tires is good for the environment, the UBC study found that the fill leaches into storm-water a chemical called 6PPD-quinone, which is known to kill coho.
“The average artificial turf field contains around 125 metric tonnes of crumb rubber — that’s around 20,000 passenger vehicles, so a massive amount of rubber that can release pollutants in just one soccer field,” Katie Moloney, a PhD student in environmental engineering in UBC’s Scholes Lab, told Global News.
The project began after the North Vancouver Streamkeepers found dead coho in an adjacent stream to where crumb rubber was found to be washing off a nearby turf field.
The study has found that the contamination can continue for years after the field is installed.
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“One of our findings shows that a three-year field, a four-year field is behaving the same way a 14-year-old field is behaving, so we can’t just assume it’s a short-term problem,” Moloney said.
“Rather, across the lifespan of this turf field, it’s going to continue to release contaminants.”
Scientists said the contaminants can be reduced by passing storm-water through a planted soil filter.
Is this the same as when we switched to plastic grocery bags to save the trees only to pollute the environment even worse ?
How about we stop letting the environmentalists come up with ideas to save the environment. They aren’t batting very high here.
“ 20,000 passenger vehicles” LOL
There are 3 million cars in BC that’s what? 0.006% of the issue? irrelevant!!
Who got wasted Govt funding for that study and PhD.