I should add that the particular problem in the Spokane River was that baby salmon weren't surviving because of the eutrification and low oxygen levels.
ACI notes that there are some performance issues, which can be solved by observing these points: 1) Make sure your water temp is at least 120 F (mine is 140 at the dishwasher). 2) Don't use too much detergent. If you have an old dishwasher, about half as much as the cups will hold is about right. 3) If you have water spots, chances are your water is hard. The guy I talked to told me he'd just returned from Ireland, where the water is very hard and they have water softeners *built in* to the dishwashers.
If you have accumulated cloudiness, you may need to do a periodic vinegar treatment. Here's how they describe it:
Fortunately, there probably isn't enough used to cause any problems.
Note that the ACI FAQ, I think, mentions that there are not laws against
*using* the stuff. The laws mostly regulate retail sale. My contact guy said that all big detergent manufacturers took phosphates out, but there may be some local ones in the states that don't regulate it, selling to the local market.Nationwide, the ag use is by far the dominant source of phosphorus in rivers and streams. In heavily built-up areas, like around my beloved Delaware, residential cleaning use is the dominant source, with the Delaware apparently being an extreme, but not actually an outlying, example.
My contact guy is an exec. with ACI in charge of this subject there, with over 20 years of industry experience. I think that further questions would have to be directed to the EPA. I know that there is some detailed research available that they used in their analysis. I just don't know what it is.
And, without a paying article to write about it, my work is done here. d8-) It is quite interesting. Having followed water pollution issues in my area, I always find it interesting, because the real research so often refutes the conventional wisdom. And it's a consequential subject.
Which reminds me that it's time to get out my son's microscope and do a species count of plankton in a local pond again. When he was in middle school, he did a science project that was based on some scientific data that ranks water quality on the basis of relative species counts. Local water-quality officials were very interested. Too few paramecia and too many cyclops, and you have trouble.