After months of study and debate, Santa Clara County leaders rejected a controversial proposal to ban artificial turf fields on county property, despite ongoing concerns effects about their health and environmental impacts.

A nearly yearlong effort to ban artificial turf on Santa Clara County-owned properties has failed after the Board of Supervisors was unable to come to a consensus on the much debated topic.

Santa Clara County is preparing to ban artificial turf on all county-owned property, citing health and environmental concerns.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors is considering a ban on artificial turf on county fields. Health advocates are in favor of the ban because chemicals in turf may cause health problems like cancer.

Only a handful of locations in the county would be affected, including the Twin Creeks Sports Complex in Sunnyvale and a private school currently leasing county land. The ban could also impact the San Jose Earthquakes’ plan to build artificial turf soccer fields at the county fairgrounds.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors late on Tuesday afternoon rejected a ban on artifical turf. The ban would have applied to all county-owned property and could have prevented the construction of new turf sports fields and required existing turf facilities to switch to grass at the time the existing turf needed to be replaced.

The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors late Tuesday rejected a ban on artificial turf on county-owned property. The ban, had it been enacted, would have prevented new turf installations and could have impacted existing sports complexes.