Burrillville residents battling Town Council over forever chemicals in artificial turf

'What I expected was a conversation," said Adam Schatz. "Instead, we were met with ... outright anger and name-calling."

This used to be a Mobil Gas Station that leaked gasoline into Burrillville’s aquifer…

Adam Schatz has led the effort to prevent the installation of an artificial turf field for the Burrillville High School Sports Field. The Burrillville Town Council, under the leadership of Council President Donald Fox, has engaged with FieldTurf, an artificial turf company, to install the field. Schatz and many Burrillville residents are concerned because studies and on-the-ground testing have shown that artificial turf is a source of PFAS, a class of cancer-causing chemicals colloquially known as “forever chemicals.” These chemicals can leak into the groundwater and aquifers, contaminate wells, and destroy the value of affected property.

Sign the petition here

Attend the special Burrillville Town Council meeting scheduled for September 5th.

The Blackstone River Watershed Council, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management [DEM], and the Rhode Island Department of Health [DOH] have all written letters warning the Town Council about the dangers of installing the field. [See here and here]

DEM and DOH mentioned that the field might be a very bad investment given the recent passage of the Consumer PFAS Ban Act of 2024. “This Act defines ‘artificial turf’ as ‘man-made material which simulates the appearance of live turf, organic turf, grass, sod or lawn’ and bans the manufacture, sale, or distribution of artificial turf containing intentionally added PFAS on January 1, 2029,” write the agencies. “It should be noted that, since artificial turf fields require periodic maintenance (e.g., replacement of the turf), any materials necessary for future maintenance will be subject to this Act.”

The agencies are particularly concerned that the Town Council may be ignoring data gathered at the nearby North Smithfield Junior-Senior High School “suggesting that the artificial turf field (first constructed in 2007 and upgraded/replaced in 2021) may be partly or wholly contributing to the contamination of nearby private and public drinking water supply wells.”

Burrillville can correct course, but under the leadership of Council President Fox, the Town Council seems intent on forcing the project through.

Schatz spoke at a recent meeting of the Democratic Town Committee, and I spoke to him privately afterward. His comments and our conversation have been edited for clarity.

Adam Schatz: I don't consider myself a particularly political guy. I have my beliefs. I try to keep those to myself. I don't put signs out, but when Roberta Neal Murphy came to me and was explaining to me some of these issues with PFAS, artificial turf, what it's doing to our water system, and the small amounts you need to contaminate [our water - It's one part per trillion. It's hard to fathom numbers that large.

I said, “Let's talk to the town council. Let's bring awareness around this.” What I expected was a conversation. I thought it would be, “Wow, okay, we weren't aware. Let's understand more. Let's make an informed decision.” Instead, what we were met with was - I won't even say it was dismissal - outright anger and name-calling. We were called fearmongers and environmental alarmists. I've been accused of intimidating state bureaucrats and agencies to get information. These are things I never would've expected.

I guess what I'm saying is if there's a line of demarcation of where I want to be as a human being, it's on the side of protecting this community, protecting our water, and protecting our citizens. It's not a political issue to me and I don't think it should be.

It shocks me to my core that I'm standing up here. It's not who I am. I'm going to ask for a couple of things as well. I have a petition up. I would ask that you take a look at it, and read about what we're concerned about. I know many of you have been on Facebook. You've probably seen my posts. Many people are probably sick of me but educate yourself on it. Come to the Town Council meeting on September 5th to make your voice heard. We also have raffle tickets. We're trying to raise money. This is a grassroots campaign. We are fighting against a town that's spending tens of thousands of dollars on, in my opinion, consultants who have a conflict of interest and aren't bringing real information.

We want to educate people so that they can make informed decisions. I don't want to tell people what they should do. I have my opinion on artificial versus natural turf, but I am well aware that some people will have opinions on the other side, and I respect that. These are people that I went to school with, played sports with, and my kids play sports alongside - people I care about. I want to educate them and show them what can happen to our water system and what we're seeing happen in North Smithfield.

We have a joint letter from the Department of Environmental Management and the Department of Health that says that artificial turf may be wholly or partly contributing to PFAS levels that are above safe limits in North Smithfield. That may be the first time in the country that testing was done before and after that can show the effects of PFAS contamination.

Steve Ahlquist: You said the Town Council is not being responsive to your concerns?

Adam Schatz: I went to them and asked for a conversation. That was shut down. They're not going to put it on the council agenda. When we did get it added, it was removed and pushed to a special meeting on September 5th, under the guise of needing more time to get testing done. That meeting is next week, but it's also right before the artificial turf is scheduled to be installed. So now our window of time has shrunk to where having a debate about what direction we want to go - natural or artificial?

In my opinion, at the special meeting, they're going to present the test results from a compromised consultant who works with FieldTurf [the company selling the artificial iturf] and does this testing town-to-town and they're going to say, “It's safe.” The Town Council has another meeting on September 10th where I think they're going to vote to move forward with it. We have a five-day window to try to change minds.

Steve Ahlquist: The only difference between the town council's actions here and the town council's actions back when the Invenergy power plant was proposed is that the power plant was going to take years to build, but you can install artificial turf in days. It seems like they know they can run off the clock. And then, ten years from now the town can start dealing with the effects of PFAS contaminated wells.

Adam Schatz: It's amazing. So we are looking at the comments that Don Fox, President of the Town Council, is making on social media. He said, “We engaged with a company that sells PFAS-free turf.” In response, we do our research, and then their compromised consultant admits, “Yes, there's PFAS, but it's under the state limit.” So there is PFAS in it. It does leach into the waterway, but they're saying it's a safe amount.

Now they're saying we're misunderstanding the level of danger. That was Fox's next comment, we misunderstood. I don't think we did. It's going into the water system and when you're talking about something that contaminates at a single digit per trillion, that's a concern no matter what. And why would you risk it when there's an alternate option?

Steve Ahlquist: Burrillville has a very long history of contaminated wells and water. You had the MBTE from a gas station destroy an aquifer. You've had cancer clusters as a result. Why would the Town Council be so adamant about something that has the potential to repeat such a dark history?

Adam Schatz: I wish I had an answer to that. What we have is some town council members who made dismissive comments about people who dealt with that - not even acknowledging that people went through cancer clusters and lost pets and family members. It's something the Town Council should be sensitive to, and something a town council member understands is a sensitive topic. However you feel about moving forward with the artificial turf, you would think there would be a level of respect expressed towards people concerned about contaminated water who have already dealt with it and lost family members or are still battling cancer. It's amazing to me. I don't have an answer.

Steve Ahlquist: I heard there are no town council openings in this year's election.

Adam Schatz: Nobody opposed them. I think it's a lack of civic engagement that you see across the board. People don't typically want to get involved in town politics. I think you'll see spikes after events like this, and I'm sure we'll get a lot of people running in 2026 if there's still that level of interest.

Steve Ahlquist: I had to block Donald Fox on Twitter because he was trolling me in an ugly and personal way.

Adam Schatz: He's attacked me personally as well.

Steve Ahlquist: I will see you at the September 5th meeting!