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Phosphorus Free Automatic Dishwasher Detergent
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Phosphorus Free Automatic Dishwasher Detergent
Problems?
Since the legislation in Spokane and Whatcom Counties went into effect (July 1, 2008) people began to experience problems with how well the available detergents worked. Recently WALPA has conducted surveys within Spokane County in an attempt to outline the best available products and the retailers who carry them.
WALPA's Neighborhood Survey for Spokane County
Do you want to know what P-Free Automatic Dishwasher detergents work best in your area? In an effort to determine what brands work best within the Spokane Region, WALPA members conducted a Neighborhood Survey. Click the link below to see the results of the survey to better prepare you (the consumer) on what brands work best for your area.
WALPA's Neighborhood Survey
(Updated May 2009)
**If you would like to participate in this survey please contact: info(at)walpa(dot)org
WALPA's Store Inventory Survey for Spokane County
Do you want to know what stores are carrying the brands that work best in your area? In February 2009, WALPA's board members in Spokane County conducted a Store Inventory Survey to determine the availability of brands being carried that consumers could purchase. Click the link below to view the results:
Spokane County Store Inventory Survey
(February 2009)
Washington State Department of Ecology News
Ecology's News Release
Issued April 14, 2009
Ecology's Reducing Phosphorus Pollution to Improve Water Quality Website
Released March 2009
WALPA's Press Release
"GET THE P OUT"
WALPA's Press Release
Issued February 18, 2009
IN THE PRESS:
Down to Earth (February 18, 2009)
http://www.downtoearthnw.com/stories/2009/feb/18/walpa-encourages-residents-get-p-out/
Journal of Business - Spokane and Kootenai Counties (March
12, 2009)
Phosphorus Ban Disliked, Working
KHQ News - Spokane (March 20, 2009)
http://www.khq.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?ClipID1=3566601&h1=Phosphorus%20ban%20working%20say%20officials&vt1=v&at1=News&d1=100167&LaunchPageAdTag=Homepage&activePane=info&rnd=81939614
If this link doesn’t work, the video can be found on khq.com
Associated Press - Yahoo News (March 27, 2009)
Spokane residents smuggle suds over green brands
Associated Press - Yahoo Finance
(March 27, 2009)
Spokane residents rebel over dirty dishes
KOMO News - Seattle (March 27, 2009)
Dirt-weary
Spokane turns to bootleg detergent
CBS and Westwood One Radio (March 30, 2009)
Bootleg Detergent
LA Times (April 6, 2009)
The dirty truth: They're smuggling soap in Spokane
Spokesman Review (May 17, 2009)
Low phosphates helping, official says
Phosphorus Famine: The Threat to Our Food Supply
From the
June 2009 Scientific American Magazine
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=phosphorus-a-looming-crisis
WALPA's Response to the Press Releases:
We have received many e-mails and phone calls from the recent press coverage, and we feel we were not represented accurately in many of the article's. In attempt to set "set the record straight" we have drafted one primary response:
Why is WALPA supporting legislation to ban the sale of consumer products containing high concentrations of phosphorus? WALPA is doing this to protect the water of our state and because there are effective alternative products that do not pollute into our lakes, rivers, streams and oceans by adding unnecessary phosphorus.
Many of the responses we have received on this issue ask why we are supporting a legislative solution rather than a public education approach. WALPA values education, and education and outreach on water resources issues are primary activities of our organization. However we are a group of citizen volunteers fighting for these issues on our own time, on our own nickel, and we face huge multi-national corporations and lobbying firms with far greater financial resources than we have. Which message will get out? WALPA will continue to work on education, but have these multi-national corporations stepped foreword to educate the public on the chemicals and additives they've put into our food, our air, our water, and our bodies? Should we as citizens be required to be biochemists and toxicologist in order to make an informed choice on what laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, or lawn fertilizer we should buy? Current use of these phosphorus containing products is statewide, the pollution the use of these products cause is statewide. The best way to protect our resources is to minimize the addition of phosphorus statewide, and legislation is the most effective tool to do this.
The scientific reason we are working to reduce phosphorus pollution is because it is the limiting nutrient in our waters, add more you will get more algae and macrophytes (aquatic plants). Add more and we will have more frequent blue-green algae blooms, with higher potential lethal toxicity to pets and livestock, and these bacteria really make your drinking water taste bad. Blooms of algae from additions of phosphorus can cause dissolved oxygen crashes and fish kills.
To reduce the excess phosphorus from sources such as dishwasher detergent and lawn fertilizers going into our waters, we citizens are spending millions of public dollars on wastewater treatment plants that remove some of the polluting phosphorus in wastewater, but not enough to protect our waters. It is not cost effective, nor is it fair that the citizens of Washington should be asked to spend billions of dollars to reduce this pollutant so dishwasher detergent manufacturers can continue to sell their polluting products. By reducing the source of this pollutant by reducing its use, we can protect our waters and save millions of dollars of our money.
Reducing phosphorus in dishwashing detergent and still getting clean dishes has already been solved; it just needs to be implemented in Washington. The issue with the dishwasher detergent sold in Spokane is water hardness, the formulations the corporate suppliers stock in the stores in E Washington are a one formula fits all, shipped throughout North America. There are dishwasher detergents that work in hard water, and almost all of them work in soft water. But if people were to switch from one product to another, well there goes corporate profit down the street to another corporation.
The detergent industry is not concerned with the water quality of the State of Washington unless citizens tell them they have to be. These corporations have big lobbying firms with a bunch of high paid lawyers on K Street in Washington DC whose job is to spin issues like this to maximize profits for their corporate membership. WALPA does not view our efforts at passing legislation that does not allow these multi-national corporations to pollute our state as anti freedom, we view this effort as volunteer citizens fighting to protect our country and our environment. How many of the so-called detergent smugglers have sat down with their children and explained that they would rather leave them polluted lakes than figure out which dishwasher detergent to use?
We're not just arguing about just trees and fishes and swimming, this is about our drinking water, this is about protecting our agriculture, this is about protecting our pocketbook. This is about we citizens telling the multi-national corporations’ you cannot pollute our state’. This is a way we as citizens can take individual responsibility for our actions to protect our country. How can the 'freedom' to use dishwashing soap containing polluting additives be more important than that?
Testimonies
Tom Brattebo, Liberty Lake, WA
Will You Help?
In my home county of Spokane, the change in dishwasher detergent has not been totally smooth. Our proximity to Idaho (where they are currently experiencing degradation of several lakes due to increased plant growth… (Perhaps too much P?) allows relatively easy access to the “old reliable” Cascade, Electrasol, etc. Only one major supplier, Palmolive, is currently marketing a P-free detergent, with most others supplied by small, environmentally focused companies. Not all merchants carry a wide assortment of P-free dishwasher detergents, and not all of these detergents work well in every case. Water hardness appears to be a big factor. I have found that it may take some experimentation with different brands to find one that is satisfactory in any particular location. But, with experimentation, we have found products that work, wherever we try.
In July of 2010, the entire state of Washington is scheduled to join the P-free dishwasher detergent world. The legislation provides no enforcement and no education funds. Those who do not make the effort to find the “right” detergent for their home may have a very negative opinion on this effort. Without telling people that they must search for the “right” detergent, or helping them with their search, I am concerned that the move for the entire state could fail in frustration. Officials from the Soap and Detergent Association say they will be ready to go P-free nationwide by 2010, but that deadline it’s now 2009 and only Palmolive is competitive today. Can we depend on the industry to follow through?
Why don’t you, as a Washington resident who cares about lake water quality, get a head start; help lead: Find a P-free dishwasher detergent that works at your house---and use it. You may need to search different stores (I found the P-free Seventh Generation dishwasher detergent in the health foods section at one store). You may have to make a request of your favorite store. You may have to try more than one detergent. When you find the “one for you,” tell your neighbors what works and why it will help our water bodies. Your efforts can be a small step towards eliminating P flowing into our natural water bodies, and facilitate the statewide, and a nationwide change to the more water body friendly dishwasher detergent.
History: 2006 Legislation
In 2006 HB 2322 was introduced into the Washington State legislature which;
Declares that, while significant reductions of phosphorus from laundry detergent have been accomplished, similar progress in reducing phosphorus contributions from dishwashing detergents has not been achieved. Declares an intent to impose a statewide limit on the phosphorus content of household detergents. Provides that, after July 1, 2008, a person may not sell or distribute for sale a dishwashing detergent that contains 0.5 percent or more phosphorous by weight. Does not apply to the sale or distribution of detergents for commercial and industrial uses.
Sec. 1. RCW 70.95L.005 and 1993 c 118 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
The legislature hereby finds and declares that:
(1) Phosphorus loading of surface waters can stimulate the growth of weeds and algae, and that such growth can have adverse environmental, health, and aesthetic effects;
(2) Household detergents contribute to phosphorus loading, and that a limit on detergents containing phosphorus can significantly reduce the discharge of phosphorus into the state's surface and ground waters;
(3) Household detergents containing no or very low phosphorus are readily available and that over thirty percent of the United States population lives in areas with a ban on detergents containing phosphorus;
(4) Phosphorus limits on household detergents can significantly reduce treatment costs at those sewage treatment facilities that remove phosphorus from the waste stream; and
(5) While significant reductions of phosphorus from laundry detergent have been accomplished, similar progress in reducing phosphorus contributions from dishwashing detergents has not been achieved.
It is therefore the intent of the legislature to impose a statewide limit on the phosphorus content of household detergents.
Sec. 2. RCW 70.95L.020 and 1993 c 118 s 3 are each amended to read as follows:
(1) After July 1, 1994, a person may not sell or distribute for sale a laundry detergent that contains 0.5 percent or more phosphorus by weight.
(2)(a) After July 1, 1994, and until the dates specified in (b) of this subsection, a person may not sell or distribute for sale a dishwashing detergent that contains 8.7 percent or more phosphorous by weight.
(b) A person may not sell or distribute for sale a dishwashing detergent that contains 0.5 percent or more phosphorus by weight:
(i) Commencing July 1, 2008, in counties with populations, as determined by office of financial management population estimates:
(A) Greater than one hundred eighty thousand and less than two hundred twenty thousand; and
(B) Greater than three hundred ninety thousand and less than six hundred fifty thousand;
(ii) Commencing July 1, 2010, throughout the state.
(3) This section does not apply to the sale or distribution of detergents for commercial and industrial uses.
History: 2007 Legislation
In 2007, HB 2322 was amended by HB 2263 which ultimately singled out Whatcom and Spokane Counties for July 1, 2008. This amendment outlines;
Sec 1. 2(b) Beginning July 1, 2008, in counties located east of the crest of the Cascade mountains with populations greater than four hundred thousand, as determined by office of financial management population estimates, a person may not sell or distribute for sale a dishwashing detergent that contains 0.5 percent or more phosphorus by weight.
(c) From July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2010, in counties located west of the crest of the Cascade mountains with populations greater than one hundred eighty thousand and less than two hundred twenty thousand, as determined by office of financial management population estimates, a person may not sell or distribute for sale a dishwashing detergent that contains 0.5 percent or more phosphorus by weight except in a single-use package containing no more than 2.0 grams of phosphorus.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT WALPA AND
THE ABOVE DESCRIBED ACTIVITIES
CONTACT:
info(at)walpa(dot)org