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Microplastics subcommittee to explore working groups on tire wear, atmospheric transport and artificial turf
Summary
After presentations on tire-wear emissions and the statewide monitoring strategy, the Microplastics Subcommittee discussed forming subgroups to address tire-wear methods, cross-media (atmosphere-water) transport, artificial turf impacts, and data gaps for the Coast & Ocean assessment, and tentatively set a Sept. 23, 2026 meeting.
During the meeting's discussion period, co-chair Shelly Moore solicited priorities for subcommittee work. Attendees proposed four near-term topic groups: a tire-wear working group (to develop sampling protocols and pilot studies in stormwater and catch basins), a cross-media group to study atmospheric-to-water transport and small-particle behavior (including inhalation and PM-size considerations), an artificial-turf subgroup to evaluate turf replacement impacts and public messaging, and a data-management group to help fill microplastics data gaps identified in the California Coast and Ocean Report.
Several participants volunteered to contribute: Richard Watson and D (Alaska Pacific University) offered to serve as leaders or co-chairs of the proposed tire-wear/sediment-focused group; D and Andy emphasized atmospheric transport and multiphase transport as priorities; Pavlova Vitali proposed a subgroup to study artificial turf implications after local school-district turf decisions raised community concerns. Laurie Webber (Monitoring Council executive director) reported that the May 28 Coast and Ocean assessment flagged microplastics as a data gap and encouraged the subcommittee to consider ways to supply usable data for coastal assessments, including Indigenous monitoring perspectives.
The co-chairs said they would follow up with volunteers to form working groups and tentatively scheduled the next subcommittee meeting for Sept. 23, 2026, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. PT. The group agreed to circulate links to the Coast and Ocean report and Indigenous microplastics monitoring resources and to invite data-subgroup participants to coordinate with the Trash Monitoring Work Group's data subgroup.
