The push for the removal of the tire mulch product used on the Aromas Elementary School playground, was discussed by the Aromas/San Juan Unified School District Board of Trustees on Oct. 27 at Anzar High School.
The board unanimously agreed to bring the subject back to the board using a three-pronged approach. One was a request for the district’s Director of Maintenance and Traffic, Bill Rupert, to research the cost of replacing the cost of the mulch with another wood product, and the protocol of volunteers assisting licensed contractors. The second would be for Aromas resident Brent Capuano to continue raising the funds to purchase the replacement product, and then, third, to bring back the information to the board meeting in December.
Capuano presented his research on the risks of using the product, noting that there are unknowns regarding suggestions that tire chips can cause cancer.
“We don’t know for sure if tire mulch causes cancer, but this is where common sense is needed; over-confidence is a problem,” Capuano stated.
He cited numerous studies that give evidence that chemicals in the environment are a significant factor in the risk of developing cancer over a period of time. The websites of the studies were listed in the paperwork Capuano made available to the board.
A Gonzales school, he pointed out, removed the tire mulch from its playgrounds due to the chemicals getting into the city water drainage system. He also learned that vandals started a fire in the mulch.
Several board members and a few parents spoke in favor of replacing the rubber mulch.
One parent, Gina Acevedo, read a letter she wrote to the board. In summary, she spoke of her ninth-grader and his friends who remembered the smell of the rubber, and the metal wires that would stab them in their fingers when they played in it.
“I always had my concerns when my kids would come home with their clothes charcoaled with black smears on their faces from sweating,” she said. “I feel the school board and superintendent should support the removal of these toxic shredded rubber tires.”
She asked the board and superintendent to help fund the mulch replacement project to make the schools safer.
Other speakers included Drew McAlister, who said he felt that one school should not be the only school undergoing the removal and replacement. San Juan Elementary and Mi Escuelita also utilize the rubber mulch for the playgrounds.
Capuano has been unsuccessful, he said, in his efforts to get the dimensions of the other playgrounds so they could be included in the project as well.
“I want to be clear that I want all the schools to have the opportunity to be tire mulch-free,” he said.
Rupert said he thought it best to wait for an Environmental Protection Agency report on the rubber product, but Board President Jeff Hancock noted that if there is a fundraising mechanism in place, then it wouldn’t be necessary to wait.
Trustee Angelica Medina said that if it does not affect the budget then she doesn’t see why it would be stopped. “If they have the money, and the volunteers, then go for it,” she said.
Capuano suggested using a wood fiber product that would cost around $6,000 to $7,000. A GoFundMe page he set up, Play It Safe Aromas and San Juan, had raised $1,215 of its $30,000 goal by Sunday, Oct. 30 and Capuano noted that another $1,000 is coming in when the project receives a tax ID, so the donor can receive a tax deduction.
Kevin Moore of OPA Farms LLC has offered to remove the rubber chips at no cost.
Cameron Wright, president of West Coast Rubber Recycling, said of those concerned about the rubber chips, “I understand their position, but every study we have is that this is a safe product to use in children’s playgrounds. However, I do respect where they’re coming from. ”
Wright referenced the Recycled Rubber Information packet of May 2016, including several websites from opposing points of view.
One source he shared, www.syntheticturfcouncil.org, said, “broad-based body of scientific research from academic, independent third party, federal and state government organizations has unequivocally failed to find any link between recycled rubber infill and cancer or any other human health risk. There can always be more research done, and the Synthetic Turf Council encourages and supports any future opportunities for independent, science-based research. We are confident that additional research will corroborate findings to date; namely, that recycled rubber infill does not pose an elevated human health risk to people of any age.”