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The Montgomery County Board of Education recently approved the purchase of an artificial turf surface for the Walter Johnson High School stadium, but some have expressed reservations about the safety of the field.

The Planning board voted 5-1 in favor of the purchase on May 26. Board member Laura V. Berthiaume was the lone dissenter. Not all of the side effects of using artificial turf are known, she and other opponents argued, and the field should not be built until there is more information.

"If it should turn out that the fields are in some way toxic, we may be held responsible," Berthiaume (Dist. 2) of Rockville said in an interview with The Gazette. "I also know that these fields get very hot, so there needs to be a mechanism in place to ensure the users' safety."

Board members voted to appropriate $405,981 for the project. The remaining cost of the estimated $1.2 million field would come from a contribution by the Bethesda Soccer Club, which would use the field for games and practices, and a financing agreement with a leasing consultant.

The special appropriation must still be approved by the County Council, whose Education Committee will take up the issue at 9:30 a.m. on Monday.

Board member Patricia O'Neill (Dist. 3) of Bethesda said while she understands the heat-related concern over the field—her daughter once complained about the temperature of a similar field during a field hockey camp in North Carolina—the surface is safe.

"This particular type of field is safe as anything can be," O'Neill, a Walter Johnson graduate, said in an interview. "Years ago when the turf fields came in they created situations where athletes were more prone to injuries, but a different process is used now."

The main argument in favor of the fields is their durability. Grass fields often don't drain properly and cannot be used consistently like artificial turf ones, O'Neill said.

Walter Johnson Principal Christopher Garran said the county has reviewed the health concerns "exhaustively."

"I wouldn't be putting artificial turf in if it wasn't safe for my students," he said.

He added that the new surface would also allow more teams to use the field for daily practice, because it could withstand more use. Currently, some teams need to travel to Tilden and North Bethesda middle schools for practice.

A similar debate raged in recent years in the Richard Montgomery High School community before the school's new artificial turf field was unveiled in September. Athletic director Bob Maxey said the field is safe and a boon for the community.

"…[O]n the field, we could maybe get a state soccer or state lacrosse game," he said in an April interview with The Gazette. "I'd love to maybe get a ‘Battle of the Bands' here for kids who may never walk on turf their whole life. Summer camps, like we did last year, a speed and agility camp we've got this summer — there's just so much we want to do here."

The Walter Johnson PTSA expressed their support for the project in February, according to Tom Murphy, a parent in the Walter Johnson cluster, but other parents are still wary.

Paula Bienenfeld, who has a child at Walter Johnson, said in addition to the carcinogen levels and heat effects of the turf, using sod on the field could serve as an opportunity to help a local business.

"There are sod farmers in this county who would love to work on this field," she said.

Staff Writer Dan Greenberg contributed to this report.