Argument won’t wash

Columnist Mona Charen’s “crisis” (“Phosphate ban’s spotty logic,” Jan. 25) is that her dishwasher is not getting things clean enough. For her, “Sparkling, squeaky-clean dishes are a necessary part of our quality of life.” Those dirty environmentalists are to blame because they have been successful in getting the phosphate in dishwashing soap lowered from 8 percent to less than 0.5 percent.

Furthermore, she believes this reduction is tragically unnecessary because fertilizer and manure are the biggest phosphate polluters of lakes and rivers.

Hold on, she envisions more. The phosphate reduction in detergents is actually ecologically damaging in that people will have to use more hot water in their efforts to wash those recalcitrant, phosphate-less pots and pans.

Get a grip, Mona, and sacrifice a little. The health of our water resources is worth more than sparkle in your kitchen. If you scrape your dishes clean immediately following your meal, you will not have to use more water and they will wash up fine. Trust me, I have tried it.

And since you acknowledge that “fertilizer and manure are the big culprits” of water pollution, maybe you should join environmentalists in this fight. It is a topic worth writing about.

Scott Melville

Spokane