Dish detergent targeted

OLYMPIA – Don’t try looking for a “Spokane only” blend of Electrasol or Cascade next time you’re buying dishwashing detergent. There’s no such thing.

Realizing this, local groups trying to clean up the Spokane River are going statewide in their quest to sharply reduce dishwasher phosphorous, a nutrient for oxygen-sapping algae. They’re calling for statewide limits, despite industry reluctance and warnings of ineffective detergents, dirty dishes and a consumer backlash.

“This is a simple, easy way to make a dent in solving this (algae) problem,” Craig Engelking, a lobbyist for the Sierra Club, told lawmakers at a recent hearing in Olympia.

Proponents want to pass House Bill 2322, from Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane. Starting in July 2007, the bill would limit the amount of phosphorous in dishwasher detergent to half a percent or less. It would be the tightest statewide restriction in the country.

In the state Senate, meanwhile, Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, wants to set aside several million dollars to help clean up the Spokane River. With Gov. Chris Gregoire pushing a $42 million cleanup plan for Puget Sound, Brown said, it would nice if the waterway for the state’s second-largest city could get $4 million or so to help with pollution.

A statewide phosphorous limit for dishwasher detergents is the only kind that would be enforceable, Spokane environmental attorney Rachael Paschal Osborn said. Waterways in two states, three counties and a couple of Indian tribal areas feed into the Spokane River.

Current law allows nearly 9 percent phosphorous in dishwashing detergents. That’s similar to the level you’d find in Miracle-Gro, said Becky Stanley, with the Sierra Club’s Cascade chapter.

“So when we use these dishwashing detergents, we’re pouring fertilizer down our drains,” she said.

The phosphorous feeds “algae blooms” in Long Lake, the Spokane River reservoir that’s also known as Lake Spokane, and other bodies of water. When that algae dies and rots, it uses up oxygen, often killing fish. Some kinds of algae are even worse, poisoning dogs or livestock that ingest it while drinking water. The “red tides” that Puget Sound oystermen dread are toxic algae blooms.

But the issue is particularly important in Spokane, where the river isn’t meeting federal clean water standards, due to too little dissolved oxygen. The reason, county Commissioner Todd Mielke told lawmakers, is largely phosphorous. Even with a new sewage plant planned, Mielke said, a state phosphorous limit is critical to help meet water standards.

This is not a new topic for state lawmakers. In 1993, similar concerns prompted the state to limit laundry detergents to half a percent phosphorous. Liquid dish soaps, which rely on hand-scrubbing, generally do not contain phosphorous.

But T-shirts are not dishes, industry lobbyists say. The proposed limit, they say, would make it much harder for dishwashers to clean well.

Dennis Griesing, a lobbyist for the Soap and Detergent Association, said that phosphates help sterilize dishes and break down calcium-based stains like those caused by coffee and tea. And despite a $200 million effort to get consumers to use no-phosphorous versions of dishwasher detergent, he said, “they have been rejected.” In one test marketing in Arizona, he said, complaints to the maker’s toll-free number increased 600 percent.

Also, appliance manufacturers rely on phosphates to keep washer arms and pumps free of hard-water lime deposits, said Jan Wengler, a lobbyist for the company that makes Electrasol, the second-biggest selling dishwasher detergent. The company, she said, has been unable to find anything that works as well as phosphorous.

“It’s just such a workhorse for the needs of our consumers,” she said.

If the state passes Ormsby’s limit, Griesing said, consumers will increase pre-washing and rinsing. They’ll run the dishwasher twice for each load. On average, he said, 60 percent of people pre-rinse their dishes, often needlessly. In Spokane County, he estimates, that means 585 million gallons of water a year wasted.

If the bill passes, Griesing warned lawmakers, “You will see more of that group, the 40 percent currently doing the right, environmentally responsible thing, go over to the dark side.” Another 385 million gallons, he said, would needlessly go down the drain.

It’s true that phosphates are useful, said chemist Martin Wolf, who works for Seventh Generation, a company specializing in ecologically friendly cleaners. Phosphates counteract hard water, prevent spotting and film on dishes, and prevent food from sticking to dishes during a wash.

But there are chemical alternatives, Wolf said. They cost slightly more, he said, but based on Seventh Generation’s testing, they work just as well.

No other state has passed such a tough restriction for dishwasher detergents, Griesing said. Massachusetts has debated it for eight years. Minnesota considered it three years ago.

Ormsby’s bill survived a critical deadline last week, winning a committee “do pass” recommendation. It’s now awaiting a vote in the full House of Representatives.