The Dirty Truth: They're Smuggling Soap in Spokane
By Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times
April 6, 2009
Spokane County's limits on the sales of phosphates in dishwasher detergent has slowed
the flood of pollutants into the Spokane River -- but sped the flood of shoppers into Idaho
to get the strong soap.
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Kim Murphy / Los Angeles Times
SPOKANE RIVER: The river is one of the nation’s most endangered. Spokane County
plans to rescue it, in part, by limiting phosphates in dishwasher detergent in an attempt
to slow the flood of pollutants into the waterway.
Reporting from Spokane, Wash. -- By day, Patti Marcotte is a working mom -- dealing
with the balancing act created by a 5-year-old daughter, a demanding job, a split-level
house and a willful boxer puppy.
Come the post-dinner hour, however, Marcotte begins operating in the shadowy world of
smuggled soap.
Spokane County in July adopted a near total ban on sales of water-softening
phosphates in dishwasher detergent -- the first in the nation -- in an attempt to slow the
flood of pollutants that is sucking oxygen out of the endangered Spokane River,
smothering its fish.
The problem, Marcotte and many of her neighbors say, is that most low-phosphate
detergents are wimps when it comes to fighting greasy pots and spaghetti-crusted
plates. So she has become a detergent outlaw, driving 45 minutes across the Idaho
state line to pick up secret stashes of the old, bad dish cleansers: the brutish Cascades,
the muscular Electrasols.
"With the 'green' stuff, the dishes come out with a real slippery texture -- like somebody
poured a cup of grease in some dishwater -- and a white film. Just really gross,"
Marcotte said. "And then the food gunk just mixes around the dishwasher and when it
stops, it just settles on whatever's there. I mean, it's bad."
Retailers in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, say the sight of apologetic but defiant Washingtonians
loading their carts with dishwasher detergent is becoming increasingly common. "We go,
'Are you coming from Spokane?' And they kind of chuckle and say, 'Yeah,' " said Donna
Wilkinson, an assistant manager at Costco.
For those inclined to chuckle at the travails of distant, desperate people with dirty dishes,
consider this: The detergent industry has pledged to make every automatic dishwashing
soap sold in the U.S. and Canada nearly phosphate-free by mid-2010.
With 12 states -- including Washington -- phasing in low-phosphate laws by the end of
next year and four others considering them, industry officials say they are gearing up to
produce a new generation of products that will clean dishes while not harming lakes and
streams. (The California Legislature passed a phosphate law last year, but Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger vetoed it.)
The pledge marks a significant turnaround for an industry that until recently not only
opposed such laws but also warned that many phosphate-free dishwashing detergents
didn't work the way consumers expected them to.
But plenty soon will be available, said Dennis Griesing, vice president of government
affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based Soap and Detergent Assn.
"We sort of warned Spokane that things wouldn't be ready by 2008. We had told people
it's not enough time to get our best products out there," Griesing said. "We have to do
the R&D, restructure our chemical supply lines, maybe build some new plants.
"This is going to be a national changeover. I can't emphasize this enough."
Two major manufacturers have introduced nearly phosphate-free gels that work well in
most water conditions, he said, and more are on the way.
At least some consumers in Spokane seem willing to give it a try.
"I'm not an automatic-dishwasher owner, I'm a hand washer, but I know from doing an
unscientific poll among family members, they have no complaints," said state Rep. Timm
Ormsby, a Democrat from Spokane who helped shepherd Washington's statewide ban -which takes effect in July 2010 -- through the Legislature.
The transition echoes the elimination of most phosphates from laundry detergent several
years ago, but represents an entirely different technological hurdle. Previous attempts to
phase out dishwasher phosphates in Europe and a brief trial in Arizona met with
implacable consumer resistance.
But Spokane County authorities say that since the law went into effect, they have
reduced phosphate pollution from the county's main wastewater treatment plant by 14%.
Scientists say phosphorus -- a nutrient that is an essential component of living cells, as
abundant in human waste and yard fertilizer as it is in detergent -- is one of the biggest
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threats to lakes and rivers whose waters take in a constant stream of phosphate-laden
wastewater discharges, agricultural runoff and storm-water flows.
Acting as a fertilizer in the water, phosphates promote the uncontrolled growth of oftentoxic algae blooms that, when they die back, nurture bacteria. That bacteria rapidly
consume much of the oxygen in the water, leaving little for plants and fish.
The Spokane River is considered one of the nation's most endangered, threatened by
mining pollution, sewage treatment plant outfalls and heavy drawdowns of river water
that tend to concentrate pollutants.
In an attempt to turn things around, the state Department of Ecology imposed what
appear to be the lowest phosphate limits in the nation on Spokane's main waterreclamation plant. And the county instituted its dishwasher detergent rules two years
before the statewide low-phosphate law takes effect.
"We had the misfortune of having a lot of people in a fairly small area on a river that
made America's 10 most-imperiled rivers list," said Michael F. Costner, operations
manager at the water-reclamation plant.
The plant is spending $7 million to experiment with new technologies for cleaning up
remaining phosphates in the wastewater. Spokane County will spend up to $250 million
more to build a new treatment plant after that. The state is also looking to crack down on
agricultural and industrial polluters, along with leaky septic systems.
The law allows dishwasher detergents to have no more than 0.5% phosphate content.
The most popular brands contain about 8% phosphates in order to remove fats and hold
food particles in suspension.
Most hand dish soap, which relies mainly on scrubbing to clean plates and pots, does
not contain phosphates.
Marcotte says she's environmentally conscious, but the phosphate-free dishwasher
detergents she has tried left the dishes so dirty she had to wash them twice, in much
hotter water, or at least rinse them after washing them -- a waste of water and electricity,
since she normally uses tepid water on the short cycle.
"I try to recycle and do my part," she said.
"The whole thing is, if they're going to take away something that works, they need to
replace it with something that works."
kim.murphy@latimes.com
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Spokane Residents Smuggle Suds Over Green Brands
By Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press
March 28, 2009
SPOKANE, Wash. – The quest for squeaky-clean dishes has turned some law-abiding
people in Spokane into dishwater-detergent smugglers. They are bringing Cascade or
Electrasol in from out of state because the eco-friendly varieties required under
Washington state law don't work as well. Spokane County became the launch pad last
July for the nation's strictest ban on dishwasher detergent made with phosphates, a
measure aimed at reducing water pollution. The ban will be expanded statewide in July
2010, the same time similar laws take effect in several other states.
But it's not easy to get sparkling dishes when you go green.
Many people were shocked to find that products like Seventh Generation, Ecover and
Trader Joe's left their dishes encrusted with food, smeared with grease and too gross to
use without rewashing them by hand. The culprit was hard water, which is mineral-rich
and resistant to soap.
As a result, there has been a quiet rush of Spokane-area shoppers heading east on
Interstate 90 into Idaho in search of old-school suds.
Real estate agent Patti Marcotte of Spokane stocks up on detergent at a Costco in
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and doesn't care who knows it.
"Yes, I am a smuggler," she said. "I'm taking my chances because dirty dishes I cannot
live with."
(In truth, the ban applies to the sale of phosphate detergent — not its use or possession
— so Marcotte is not in any legal trouble.)
Marcotte said she tried every green brand in her dishwasher and found none would
remove grease and pieces of food. Everybody she knows buys dishwasher detergent in
Idaho, she said.
Supporters of the ban acknowledge it is not very popular.
"I'm not hearing a lot of positive feedback," conceded Shannon Brattebo of the
Washington Lake Protection Association, a prime mover of the ban. "I think people are
driving to Idaho."
Steve Marcy, manager of the Costco in Coeur d'Alene, about 10 miles east of the
Washington state line, estimated that sales of dishwasher detergent in his store have
increased 10 percent. He knows where the customers are coming from.
"I'll joke with them and ask if they are from Spokane," Marcy said. "They say, `Oh yeah.'"
Shoppers can still buy phosphate detergents in Washington state by venturing outside
Spokane County, but Idaho is more convenient to many Spokane residents.
Phosphates — the main cleaning agent in many detergents and household cleaners —
break down grease and remove stains. However, the chemicals are difficult to remove in
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wastewater treatment plants and often wind up in rivers and lakes, where they promote
the growth of algae. And algae gobble up oxygen in the water that fish need to survive.
While traditional detergents are up to 9 percent phosphate, those sold in Spokane
County can contain no more than 0.5 percent.
The Washington Lake Protection Association has launched a campaign to encourage
people to give the environmentally friendly brands a fair chance. The group suggests
consumers experiment with different brands or install water softeners to help the green
detergents work better.
"Clean lakes and clean dishes do not have to be mutually exclusive," said association
president-elect Jacob McCann.
Phosphates have been banned in laundry detergent nationally since 1993. Washington
was the first state where the Legislature passed a similar ban against dishwasher
detergents, in 2006. The ban is being phased in, starting with Spokane County.
"It's nice to be on the cutting edge," Spokane resident Ken Beck, an opponent of the
ban, said sarcastically.
Among other states that have banned or are banning phosphates in dishwasher
detergent are Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, Vermont, Minnesota, Illinois,
Massachusetts and New York. A bill on Capitol Hill would impose a nationwide ban.
The Soap and Detergent Association, which represents manufacturers, initially fought
the bans. But as the movement gained strength across the country, the association
asked legislatures to delay bans until July 2010 to allow for a uniform rollout of products.
The industry has been working to develop better low-phosphate detergents, said Dennis
Griesing, vice president of the manufacturers group.
"This is an irrevocable, nationwide commitment on the industry's part," he said.
For his part, Beck has taken to washing his dishes on his machine's pots-and-pans
cycle, which takes longer and uses five gallons more water. Beck wonders if that isn't as
tough on the environment as phosphates.
"How much is this really costing us?" Beck said. "Aren't we transferring the
environmental consequences to something else?"
___
On the Net:
Washingtion Lake Protection Association: http://www.walpa.org
Soap and Detergent Association: http://www.cleaning101.com
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