LOS ANGELES — The grass is not always greener when it comes to artificial turf’s environmental impact and it’s something legislators have now taken action against. 

Artificial turf has been used in California to conserve water.

However, the chemicals found in the turf have raised concerns over the health and environmental impact. SB676, signed into law this year, means turf is no longer an acceptable form of drought-tolerant landscaping. 

Previous law had prohibited city and county governments from banning drought-tolerant landscaping, which included synthetic or artificial turf on residential property. 

The new law flips this and restores power to city and county governments to decide whether to ban or regulate artificial turf in residential settings.  

Although so far, no major entities in Southern California have made any changes.  

Turf started as a well-intended idea to reduce water usage and became popular as California faced a drought. The state even offered rebates for installing turf. 

That is when Pablo Quintero saw his business installing turf take off. He has made it his livelihood for the past 14 years now, pouring a lot of time and effort into perfecting the craft. He said he was not aware of the harmful chemicals but for now is not too concern as he is also a landscaper and can find work with natural grass as well. 

The issue has been a major concern for environmental advocates. Kelly Shannon, associate director with the Los Angeles Waterkeeper said that besides being a fossil fuel-based product, turf impacts our water quality. 

“The No. 1 thing other than plastic that we know is in there, that is a major concern from a human health and an environmental health perspective, is PFAS,” Shannon said. 

PFAS are a group of chemicals that the EPA says have been found in people’s blood, in food products and are linked to harmful health effects.

“Any time you’re running water over it, it’s leaching those chemicals, it’s leaching microplastics into our water. It’s leaking PFAS into our water. And that runoff goes into our storm drains, which makes its way into the LA River and directly into the Pacific Ocean, completely untreated, harming human health, harming environmental health,”  Shannon said. 

And along with rain, many people still water their turf as it holds heat faster than real grass, which Shannon said can reach 200 degrees on a 98 degree day. 

Charles Miller, with the Climate Reality Project, says that is why he is encouraging people to switch over to native plants, especially as we are seeing record heat years. 

“Turf contributes to the urban heat island effect. By replacing artificial turf or avoiding new installations of it, more importantly, we allow for opportunities where we can use our native plants and our native trees to foster biodiversity and have natural cooling,” Miller said. 

He points to the Westwood Greenway native habitat to show how native plants don’t need constant irrigation and can naturally clean water. 

“Continuing to use artificial turf means that we are covering the earth in plastic and we are doing that at a time when we’re in a biodiversity crisis. We have a situation where we’ve lost 90% of our local pollinators,” Miller said. 

He and the LA Chapter of the Climate Reality Project are reaching out to Los Angeles City leaders advocating for them to adopt a ban on new installations of turf, and so far the city has told him they are looking into it.