We, the undersigned, are asking Burlington City Council, the Niagara Escarpment Commission, and the organizing committee of the Toronto 2015 Games to
RE-CONSIDER the proposed use of the Burlington's New City Park as an intensive 'training site' for the soccer matches of the PanAm/Paraban Games in the summer of 2015.
It is our belief that the 'new' Burlington City Park is the
WRONG venue.
We want Burlington City Park to
BE a
PARK, not a 'competitive sports facility' catering to the 'requirements' of the PanAm Games playing out on THEIR artificial turf. We KNOW that with PanAm Games comes PanAm money for artificial turf. Yet, we believe the FUTURE FOCUS should not be on the money, but on the PARK.
Right now
three fields of 'artificial turf' are slated to be 'installed'. Fenced-in non-bio-degradable, toxic synthetic plastic grass does not
BELONG in a
NEPOSS protected park. The water that will be used to 'wash off' the unidentified sanitizing chemicals, and used to 'cool' these 'heat islands' of plastic grass, will drain directly back into the watershed -
untreated. How can this be 'Right'? How is it SENSIBLE? How is it SUSTAINABLE?
NO environmental or health assessment was done about artificial grass in the 'approved' Park Managemetn Plan of 2009.
NO evaluation was done how this STuff will affect the surrounding ecologically sensitive parkland area. For the provincial and numicipal environmental 'regulatory bodies' to overlook THE OBVIOUS is a
disgrace.
WE DO NOT WANT THE PAN AM Games IN NEW CITY PARK.
Please, listen to us, the residents and
Grass-Roots lovers of THIS land.
Find an alternate 'sports facility' in the urban area with the infrastructure to support it.
Give us a
NATURAL park; one we can be
PROUD of.
Give us a park that
RESPECTS Nature - one that
Conserves and
Protects it.
We are NOW campaigning to GET the FAKE GRASS OUT after the Pan Am Games of 2015.
---