« Lakes require tougher measures »

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Protecting our water ecosystem is an imperative, both moral and economic, and when critics this week derided Quebec Environment Minister Line Beauchamp's $12-million plan to combat Quebec's algae problem as "noble" (politic-speak for useless), they were not all wrong. Twelve million is better than nothing, but it's not nearly enough.

The solution to this growing problem requires not only money. One component of the problem is dishwashing detergent, which still contains phosphates - chemicals Ottawa and Washington banned from laundry detergents and soaps 35 years ago to revive Lakes Ontario and Erie.

That measure saved those Great Lakes from a slow death. A good starting point for Beauchamp, then, would be to ban phosphate from dishwasher soaps, at least near lakes. Detergent-makers could surely be persuaded - even ahead of a law - that they have, say, one year to start making phosphate-free dish dish cleaners.

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The Gazette, Wednesday, June 06, 2007 - via A Free Man's Life