The ongoing controversy regarding phosphates in dish detergents has provoked me from my long slumber in nobodyland. I am a past president of the Spokane Chapter of the Washington Restaurant Association and a past member of the board of directors of the Spokane Visitors and Convention Bureau. Some things need be said.

First, there is a great difference between home use and institutional use of dishwashing agents. Spokane County Commissioner Todd Mielke and state Sen. Lisa Brown are quick to represent that washing dishes without phosphates represents no problems at home. Clearly, they know that the cleaner their dishes are going in, the cleaner they will be coming out. They obviously clear, scrape, rinse and then put their dishes into the dishwasher for a nice 22-minute cycle to wash, rinse and sanitize.

There is a problem, however, when dishes are done institutionally. This includes hotels, resorts, spas, nursing homes, long-term care facilities, restaurants, fast-food joints and the like. These facilities require faster times and more efficient means. For instance, the average cycle of an institutional dishwasher is one rack per minute. One rack will hold about three diners’ dishes, whether they eat at a nursing home or at a fine dining restaurant.

To achieve a meaningful, marketable and cost-effective standard, those establishments need to use phosphates.

If phosphates are banned in Washington, the cost increases will be passed on to every person who occupies a long-term care facility, hospital bed, fast-food table and fine dining table in Spokane County. There will be no additional costs in nearby Idaho.

There may be a compromise. We could all pay an extra dollar or so for phosphate-free dishwasher detergent to use at home while the restaurants and other institutional establishments continue to wash dishes with phosphate products. I’m sure we wash a lot more dishes combined in our homes than they do in restaurants.

Another major problem in the phosphate war is farmers. They use a lot more phosphates than dishwashers, but without them, we wouldn’t need dishwashers, would we?

Already, Washington is viewed as unfriendly to businesses. Why do you think Red Lobster and The Cheesecake Cafe have avoided Spokane in favor of Coeur d’Alene? If you want to further segregate Spokane from the rest of the world, be silent. However, if you would like to join in a more realistic, job-friendly, real world, let your legislators know how you feel about this problem. If they don’t represent us, we need to let them feel some feedback with our votes in September.