Doyle signs law to limit phosphorus in dishwasher soap (www.jsonline.com)

A law that will limit phosphorus content in automatic dishwasher soap sold in Wisconsin has been signed by Gov. Doyle. The law will take effect July 1 to give retailers time to sell their current inventory of soap and switch to phosphorus-free detergent.

Twelve other states have already passed similar laws at the urging of environmentalists.

That’s July 1, 2010. If you’re a fan of good dishwashing soap, then stock up now.

Phosphorus is hard to shake (www.examiner.com)

On July 1 2009, the Wisconsin State Assembly referred a bill to ban phosphorus from dishwasher soap to the Senate’s Committee on Environment with the same reasoning behind the fertilizer ban almost four years ago. Several other states will enact laws banning phosphorus soaps by July 1, 2010. The Soap and Detergent Association, a trade organization that represents North American manufacturers of cleaning products, stated that they would be phosphorus free by that deadline.

So all is well. No more manufactured phosphorus polluting our environment.

The author of this piece, Brian Barger, seems to infer that this legislation is already enacted. From what we can tell, it’s not law yet. It has been passed from the Wisconsin Assembly and has been read through (WI-AB 281). We think it will go through but it’s not there yet.

Here’s an interesting link:

• The Soap and Detergent Association

On their site, they have an article about phosphates in dishwashing detergent:

DETERGENT “ALTERNATIVES” – THE FACTS

Claim: The environmental impact of detergent “alternatives” will be lower than that of laundry detergents because no chemicals are used.

Fact: Washing with detergent “alternatives” will have the same environmental impact as washing with water alone. But then, they only get clothes as clean as washing with clean water.

…As a result, it is totally false and misleading to describe laundry detergents as being toxic or pollutants. They are designed to go down the drain when their cleaning job is done, and be safely treated in municipal sewage treatment facilities or in septic tank systems. Detergents and their ingredients are well researched by toxicologists and environmental scientists, their fate in the environment is known, and they can be used by consumers with confidence in their human and environmental safety.

Interesting. The debate goes on!

Phosphorus limits will be good for us (www.journaltimes.com)

Cutting the level of phosphorus has had a marked impact in Spokane, Wash. Officials said similar restrictions there reduced the chemical by 14 percent within 10 months of the law’s onset.

The timing was far from ideal. With detergent makers still scrambling to perfect low-phosphate products, some residents decided the only way they could get the grime off their dishes was to flout the law. They drove to Idaho and “smuggled” in Cascade or Electrasol.

Wisconsin consumers shouldn’t face the same dilemma. By the time the law takes effect in July 2010, the detergent industry’s heavy hitters expect to have a more potent line of green products on shelves. That’s why Illinois, which passed its law in 2007, purposely held it in the starting gate until next summer.

Time will tell if good dishwasher detergents will be available. This is just one instance of government and law being pushed too far ahead of technology, which caused trouble for residents of states that were early adopters.

Right now, several Madison, WI beaches are closed due to increased algae:

Algae advisory on Wisconsin lakes and rivers (www.wkowtv.com)

Algae is a common problem. The blue-green variety that floats like paint or pea soup even caused the recent closure of Madison’s Hudson Beach.

“Just a little can cause irritation to the throat,” said Chuck Warzecha, an environmental health specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

This algae growth has happened for a number of years now as the above article mentions.

Assembly advances ban on dishwasher soap with phosphorus (www.jsonline.com)

Household dishwasher detergent that contains phosphorus would be banned Wisconsin, under a bill that is poised to pass the Assembly.

“Excess phosphorus leads to weed and algae growth that’s degrading the quality of our lakes and streams,” bill author Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison) said Tuesday. “People don’t come to enjoy our lakes and rivers if they’re fouled with weeds and algae.”

If this would pass and become law, then it would take effect in just one year – July 2010.

Apparently one reason for doing this is to join the bandwagon of other states that have similar bans on phosphate in dishwasher detergent. Opponents of this bill see this as just another way that the government has control over what people buy for cleaning their dishes. Phosphate free dishwasher detergent is notorious for not cleaning dishes very well and some argue that since people have to wash their dishes several times, this kind of legislation actually makes things worse in terms of water consumption.

There are a lot of lakes in Wisconsin – about 15,000. The Capitol city of Wisconsin, Madison, has 4 lakes in the middle of it: Lake Mendota, Lake Monona, Lake Waubesa and Lake Wingra. Algae growth on those lakes has been a problem for a number of years.