Park advocates and soccer boosters squared off yesterday at City Hall over whether the Chicago Park District should install more artificial turf fields.

Park officials and some youth soccer organizations say the durability of artificial turf makes it more suitable for play and a better choice for the Chicago's athletic fields.

But others say the fields raise environmental and public health concerns.

"Once you put the turf down, it really restricts the use," says Terry Leja, member of the advocacy group Protect Our Parks. "I don't know if families will want to picnic on an artificial turf surface."

The park district did not return calls seeking information about specific plans for more artificial turf fields, so it's unclear how many might be installed, and where or when that would happen.

Aldermen on City Council's Parks Parks and Recreation Committee agreed to defer the issue for further debate after hearing from turf advocates and opponents, as well as a Park District official.

Brendan Daley, executive assistant for the district's Green Initiative program, said artificial turf is installed where grass fields appear to take the most damage and require the most maintenance. There have been nine artificial turf fields installed in the city since 2000.

"The park district has chosen to install artificial turf because of its durability and playability in various weather conditions ultimately year round," Daley said.

However, concerns have been raised nationally about the health and injury risks of synthetic grasses, including lead exposure and breakouts of staphylococcus bacterial infections.

Daley said a study released last week by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission found children playing on turf faced no health risk from lead exposure.

While the report found small amounts of lead in heavily used fields, the levels were especially low in polyethylene grasses, the most recent version of artificial turf and the only kind used by the park district.

Dana Plotkin, co-director of FC Drive, a competitive youth soccer program, says that artificial turf is an ideal surface to teach basic skills on, but the demand for using the fields is so high that he can only get them for occasional games.

Sometimes program directors will wait outside the Park District permit office beginning at 3 a.m. to secure the ideal fields for their games.

The result is that highly competitive players are left at a competitive disadvantage compared to elsewhere in the nation, Plotkin says.

"Kids in Chicago are being left behind in the game of soccer because they don't have the proper fields to play on."

But John Paul Jones, director of parks and community relations for Friends of the Parks, says the artificial fields are "dead zones" that remove nature from the parks.

"There is an inability for life to be created there," he said.

Jones also says Friends of the Parks urges the city council to conduct a study before allowing more artificial turf fields.

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