Looking Upstream
Looking Upstream
Where will we find the best pollution solutions? From the beginning,
Clean Water Action has been a leading proponent of going "upstream" to
eliminate pollutants at the source.
"Upstream" solutions keep pollution out of the water in the first place,
rather than waiting to act until after the contamination has already
occurred.
Clean Water Action founder, David Zwick,
documented the common sense and compelling logic behind "upstream"
solutions in his book Water Wasteland, whose publication helped to fuel
the public outcry leading to to the 1972 Clean Water Act's passage.
In a chapter on phosphate pollution, Zwick documented this exchange between U.S. Rep. Henry Reuss (D-WI) and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Karl Klein during a 1969 Congressional hearing on the issue:
Mr. Reuss: [Is it not a fact that] by and large the phosphate which shows up at sewage disposal plants comes from two main sources - household detergents and human waste?Mr. Klein: Yes, sir.Mr. Reuss: And household detergents are made by three major manufacturers?Mr. Klein: That is correct.Mr. Reuss: And human wastes are made by a couple hundred million manufacturers; is that correct?Mr. Klein: Yes, sir.Mr. Reuss: Well, doesn't it occur to you that it is easier to do something about three than about a couple hundred million?
Congress failed to incorporate a phosphate ban in the original Clean Water Act, but over the years state bans on phosphates, first in laundry products and more recently in automatic dishwasher detergents, forced industry to adopt a de facto ban. Pollution from phosphates, an essential nutrient in minute quantities, can easily overwhelm waterways, causing algae blooms that decay and leave the water without oxygen and unable to sustain life.
Clean Water Action played key roles in phosphate detergent bans adopted around the Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia.