BACKGROUND INFORMATION

CHANGE YOUR AUTOMATIC DISHWASHING DETERGENT - SELECT AN AUTOMATIC DISHWASHING DETERGENT THAT CONTAINS LESS THAN 0.5% PHOSPHATES BY WEIGHT!

INCREASED PHOSPHATES = DECREASED HEALTH OF RIVERS, LAKES AND THE CHESAPEAKE BAY

The Chesapeake Bay is a very important estuary.Many people depend on the Bay for tourism and fishing.The Bay is being polluted in many ways, but an important pollutant is the run-off of nutrients from products with high levels of phosphates.Humans use products with high levels of phosphates (greater than 0.5%) that get washed down the sewer or run-off that drains to the Chesapeake Bay.These nutrients are polluting the Bay and causing health and economic problems for humans and animals. One specific source of phosphate pollution in the Bay is automatic dishwashing detergents.By switching to a low phosphate automatic dishwashing detergent, households can help reduce Chesapeake Bay pollution.We need to keep our tributaries clean because our health depends on healthy rivers, bays and oceans.

Algae blooms are the rapid growth of microscopic phytoplankton (algae) in the ocean.  This growth is usually because of increased nutrients in the water. Small amounts of nutrients are required for plants and aquatic animals.  Phosphates from detergents, run-off from farms (manure), wastewater treatment plants and other sources, as well as other nutrients, such as nitrogen and potassium  (fertilizers and other sources) encourage growth of algae in water (called ‘blooms’).  If too much nutrients, such as phosphates and nitrite, get into the water, the surface plants, mostly algae, grow too quickly and block the sunlight from reaching the water below. Dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is the amount of gaseous oxygen dissolved in the water that fish and plants use as an oxygen source. As algae grows, the level of DO increases because DO is, in part, the result of photosynthesis.  When the algae die because of lack of sunlight or lack of nutrients or any other reason, the bacteria start decomposing the algae and the DO level decreases.  As the level of DO decreases in the water, the fish and aquatic plants often die, because there is insufficient oxygen for them to survive. 

Wastewater Treatment Plants are big problems in releasing phosphates into the Chesapeake Bay.  Only Tertiary-Chemical Removing wastewater treatment plants remove nitrogen and phosphates from the wastewater before it is released into a river or ocean.  In Virginia, not all plants are at the Tertiary-Chemical Removal level, which is why citizens must do their part and reduce their use of products with high level (>0.5%) phosphates. 

Most automatic dishwashing detergents have more than 0.5% phosphates by weight, but many companies are adding low phosphate or zero phosphate dishwashing detergents to their product line and advertising them as ‘green products’.  In May 2007, Consumer Reports listed quality automatic dishwashing detergents that contain very little or zero phosphates at a comparable price to detergents with greater than 0.5% phosphates. 

Washington State was the first State (2006) to ban sale of greater than 0.5% phosphates dishwashing detergent. Vermont, Illinois & Michigan are also debating similar legislation.  Maryland had success in limiting the amount of phosphates in dishwashing detergents.  The Maryland Governor approved a law (in 2007) limiting the sale of automatic dishwashing detergents in MD to less than 0.5% phosphates.  Virginia enacted a similar law in February 2008 to reduce the amount of phosphates going into the Chesapeake bay and disrupting the Bay's ecosystem.