Zero Waste Ithaca is questioning whether the city of Ithaca has records showing Cornell University complied with PFAS-related conditions attached to the approval of two synthetic turf fields at the Meinig Fieldhouse project, saying months of public-records requests have failed to produce documentation it believes is necessary to verify the required testing.
The environmental group said the city has told it that all relevant records maintained by the city have been provided, but those materials don’t appear to include complete product information, laboratory reports, testing methods, sample identification or chain-of-custody records. The group argues that without those documents, the public can’t independently determine what was tested or whether the Planning Board’s conditions were satisfied.
The dispute centers on conditions imposed when the Ithaca Planning Board approved Cornell’s Meinig Fieldhouse project Sept. 26, 2024. According to Zero Waste Ithaca, Cornell was required to provide details about the indoor and outdoor artificial turf systems, including the shock pad, infill and blades, and obtain third-party testing of the “artificial turf carpet” for PFAS before it left the manufacturer.
The results were to be submitted to city Planning staff.
Zero Waste Ithaca said it began seeking those records through New York’s Freedom of Information Law in October 2025. Its request sought PFAS testing results, information identifying the turf manufacturer, brand and model, and correspondence or reports from Cornell and contractors concerning PFAS content and testing.
The organization said the city initially notified it June 26 that the request had been granted but failed to include seven responsive records because of what the City Attorney’s Office later described as a technical error. The records were provided June 29.
In a July 28 appeal determination cited by Zero Waste Ithaca, the city said it had supplied all relevant documents it maintains and had no further obligation under the request.
That response has become the central issue raised by the organization: If the city doesn’t possess the detailed testing and product records Zero Waste Ithaca sought, the group wants officials to explain what documentation Planning staff used to determine Cornell had met the approval conditions.
Questions over what was tested
Zero Waste Ithaca said photographs taken at the construction site May 27 showed FieldTurf-branded turf rolls and pallets carrying the Brock name, but it said records supplied by the city didn’t identify the specific turf model or complete system installed.
The organization also pointed to a separate laboratory report it obtained from another source involving a Brock ShockPad sample that reportedly measured 26 parts per million of fluorine.
Zero Waste Ithaca acknowledged that result doesn’t establish that the shock pad installed at Meinig Fieldhouse contains PFAS. It also said it doesn’t know whether the Brock material involved in the separate test was the same product or formulation used at Cornell.
The organization argues, however, that the finding makes it more important to know exactly which Brock product was used and whether the shock pad was included in testing conducted for the Meinig project.
Zero Waste Ithaca also cited language from the Planning Board’s environmental review stating that testing was intended to confirm that the artificial turf Cornell planned to use would not contain or be treated with PFAS. The group contends the wording reasonably raised an expectation that the installed turf system, rather than only a portion of it, would be addressed by the review.
Without the underlying testing documentation, the organization said it can’t determine which components were sampled, who collected the samples, which analytical methods were used or what the laboratory found.
Group points to Westchester turf dispute
Zero Waste Ithaca also compared the records dispute with a separate synthetic turf controversy in Hastings-on-Hudson, where a school district approved a FieldTurf system earlier this year.
The group said materials associated with that project described the system as PFAS-free and referenced independent testing, while an underlying consulting report acknowledged detections of some named PFAS compounds in tested components and leaching tests. The report interpreted those findings as low or consistent with environmental background, according to Zero Waste Ithaca.
The organization stressed that the Hastings and Cornell projects aren’t identical. It cited the Westchester case to argue that access to underlying laboratory and sampling records can reveal details not captured in broader descriptions of a product as PFAS-free.
A parent filed an Article 78 lawsuit in June challenging the Hastings-on-Hudson district’s approval of its turf system, according to Zero Waste Ithaca.
The Ithaca organization has separately challenged the Planning Board’s approval of the Meinig Fieldhouse project in court. Zero Waste Ithaca said that case is now on appeal.
Its broader opposition to the project has included concerns about PFAS, microplastics, heat, drainage, disposal and other environmental effects associated with synthetic turf.
The current records dispute, however, is narrower. Zero Waste Ithaca is asking the city to produce documents identifying the manufacturer, brand, model and complete turf system installed, along with the PFAS testing method, laboratory, components tested, sample and chain-of-custody information, actual results submitted to Planning staff and related Cornell or contractor submissions.
The group maintains those records are necessary to determine whether the PFAS-related conditions attached to the project approval were fulfilled as intended.
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