Last reviewed/updated 7/10/2025
OVERVIEW
Artificial turf (AT) fields have been spreading in the Pinelands and beyond, despite a growing understanding of the threat that they pose to our health and environment.
Specific concerns associated with AT fields:
- Humans are exposed to the heavy metal and PFAS content through direct contact during recreation, or indirectly when the stormwater leachate from these fields enters the groundwater.
- AT fields can exacerbate the urban heat island effect—especially when natural vegetation is being replaced with synthetic materials. This exacerbates vulnerability to extreme heat and reduces community resilience to climate change.
- AT fields need to be replaced every 8-10 years, but there is no viable way to recycle their materials; the Philadelphia Inquirer recently covered the pile-up of spent AT material that has accumulated on farms.
Amidst rising awareness and concern about the PFAS (“forever chemicals”; Per- and Polyfluorinated Substances) and heavy metals associated with these fields, the Mount Sinai Children’s Environmental Health Center has recommended a moratorium on the use of artificial turf surfaces until their safety can be demonstrated.
Many local residents are not waiting around for science to confirm their suspicions that artificial turf fields are not good for our health. ‘Turf wars’ have been breaking out in Montclair, Westfield, Scotch Plains, and Ridgewood.
CURRENT STATUS
ture meeting of the CMP Policy & Implementation Committee.
Municipalities:
- Cape May City banned artificial turf on 4/16/2024 by adopting ordinance number 531-2024.
TAKE ACTION
- Join monthly organizing calls with leaders from the Sierra Club, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and residents across New Jersey. Contact taylor.mcfarland@sierraclub.org for meeting details.
- Make public comments at Pinelands Commission meetings asking them to consider a ban/moratorium on artificial turf.
- Get involved with your local school board or township planning board, and speak against any proposals for new/existing AT fields.
More Detailed Information on AT Fields in the Pinelands
Based on applications that have come to the Pinelands Commission since 2015, eight artificial turf fields have been approved in the following Pinelands municipalities:
View the map of towns with approved artificial turf fields on Google Earth.
Do AT fields pose a unique threat to the Pinelands environment and people? This question has apparently never been considered by the Pinelands Commission before.
Heavy metals including chromium and lead, are known to leach off of artificial turf fields into any water that passes through them. This runoff water can include zinc, which is essential for plant growth in small quantities but can prove toxic when plants are exposed in large quantities. This typically isn’t a huge concern, as the zinc will quickly adsorb onto soil particles that it encounters, remaining stuck in place before it can reach any plants in dangerous quantities. However, zinc’s propensity to stay in place can be altered if the soil has a different pH–this is true of many substances, not just zinc.
Altering the acidity of soil is used as a tool to help clean up contaminated sites because it can be used to release or immobilize certain pollutants. Check out this episode of the Hazard NJ podcast, which describes how this characteristic is being used to remediate pollution at Price’s Pit in Egg Harbor Township. The pine barrens are notorious for their acidic soils, so we can expect metals and chemicals to move differently in this low-pH environment. Although pollution concerns associated with artificial turf grass are relevant state-wide, the unique conditions of the Pinelands could potentially enhance this threat. The human population of the Pinelands is also particularly vulnerable to water pollution, as many residents directly draw their water from wells tapping the Kirkwood-Cohansey Aquifer. This aquifer is unconfined–and therefore open to whatever may leach down from the surface.
Read more about discussions that have been taking place at the Pinelands Commission in these blog posts:
State Policy on Artificial Turf
Public funds are spent on AT fields through the NJDEP Green Acres Program, as well as municipal spending—often through school boards installing the fields at their schools. The latest round of Green Acres Projects announced on 4/25/2025 included at least 6 synthetic turf fields. The NJ Chapter of the Sierra Club is calling for an end to the practice of funding new artificial turf fields through Green Acres.
The NJDEP recently published a literature review on the specific question of PFAS contamination from artificial turf grass; studies of artificial turf grass have consistently detected PFAS, but there is a lack of long-term studies characterizing how much of this actually leaches into the surrounding environment. PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances) is a class of chemicals that is often referred to as ‘forever chemicals’, given the characteristic way that PFAS persist and accumulate in the environment and in our bodies. The document points to an even larger potential contamination threat from the manufacture and disposal of artificial turf grass, which should also be considered.
In the NJ state legislature, Bill S3783 was introduced in the senate on 10/10/2024, but has stalled since being referred to the Senate Environment and Energy Committee. No Assembly version exists yet. This bill would prohibit “municipalities, school districts, and State departments and agencies from purchasing, installing, or using artificial turf.”
Pinelands Commission Policy on Artificial Turf
The Pinelands Commission does not place any limitations on AT field construction that go beyond the rules for standard development. The topic has been debated at Pinelands Commission meetings in early 2025, and we are asking for a more in-depth discussion to be planned for a fu
Artificial Turf Fields in the News
A 2025 high school graduation was shut down mid-ceremony in Paterson, NJ. 16 people were hospitalized and approximately 150 people were treated for heat exhaustion on-site. An already-hot day was made worse by the concrete benches and artificial turf that the graduates and their families were sitting on. Only the Bergen Record mentioned the fact that artificial turf was involved in the incident AND exacerbates the heat, referring to it as “heat-radiating.”
The Philadelphia Inquirer has been putting out a fantastic series of articles on the health and environmental problems associated with artificial turf grass fields. The most recent article focused on soccer players. It includes a profile of a University of Washington women’s soccer team coach who noticed that many of her former players were battling cancer. Leveraging the network that she had built over her career of coaching on artificial turf fields, this coach found hundreds of cancer cases. A particularly compelling facet of this coach’s observations is that almost half of the cases were in goalkeepers: the one team position that undoubtedly spends the most time in contact with the artificial turf field. If exposure to the artificial turf was not a health risk, then we would expect an even distribution of cancer cases among all of the team members.
RESOURCES
Artificial Turf Webinar #1- December 6th, 2024: The NJ Sierra Club, ANJEC, Pinelands Preservation Alliance, and Waterspirit cohosted a webinar that provides an overview of artificial turf.
Artificial Turf Webinar #2- April 16th, 2025: Natural grass expert and sports field manager in Bayville, NJ presented on the logistics of maintaining award-winning athletic fields using natural turf.