The Lower Towamensing Township Board of Supervisors granted conditional approval Tuesday night for the Palmerton Area School District’s $3.5 million development plans.

The plans involve a 14,000-square-foot addition to the middle school, softball field, parking lot reconfiguration, driveway improvements, new track and the turf field replacement.Supervisor Chairman Brent Green said the conditional approval was granted, because “we discussed and reviewed the letters from the engineer.”Township engineer Greg Haas had reviewed the plans and wrote a letter in January to the township that everything was in order.He sent an updated version of that letter to them on Tuesday. The planning commission also gave conditional approval.“We’re happy to have received conditional approval from the supervisors,” Palmerton Area School District Superintendent Scot Engler said. “There are still a number of steps we have to go through before we can put it out to bid and really hit the ground.”Jay Mullikin, vice chairman of the planning commission, told supervisors the commission has concerns about the turf field being made with small pieces of recycled crumb rubber.Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said a plan was being developed to address public concerns about the safety of recycled rubber tire crumb used in synthetic turf fields and playgrounds.“We know people are concerned, and players and their families want answers. Limited studies have not shown an elevated health risk from playing on fields with tire crumb, but the existing studies do not comprehensively evaluate the concerns about health risks from exposure to tire crumb. We are committed to supporting more comprehensive efforts to assess risks from tire crumb,” the EPA states on its website.Engler told the supervisors that according to a study out of the state of Washington, “There is no link to any of the cancers from those fields.”The Washington State Department of Health investigated reports of cancer by women who played soccer on the synthetic turf fields for the University of Washington.The concern was raised in 2009 by their head coach who was alarmed when several soccer goalies developed blood cancers at about the same time.“By 2014, the coach had compiled a list of soccer players with cancer. The initial information included 30 current or former Washington residents who played soccer and developed a variety of cancer types between the mid-1990s and 2015. By 2016, this number had grown to 53 people,” stated on the Washington State Department of Health’s website.“Based on what we know today, the Washington State Department of Health recommends that people who enjoy soccer continue to play regardless of the type of field surface. Our recommendation is based on our investigation and the available research on crumb rubber. Assurance of the safety of artificial turf with crumb rubber are limited by the lack of adequate information on potential toxicity and exposure,” the department of health said.The report can be found at

http://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Schools/EnvironmentalHealth/syntheticTurf.Engler said he has spoken with the company that makes the synthetic turf field and was reassured that if the federal government discovers a health concern with the synthetic turf fields, then it will replace it at their expense.