How Laundry Detergent Caused an Environmental Disaster

Thank you Savannah! I live nine blocks (less than a mile) from Lake Erie (well, Presque Isle Bay, actually), and I remember in the 70s my folks wouldn't take us kids to the Peninsula to play in the lake water. Now, the Great Lakes Protection Act (1972, Canada) and the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (2015, US and Canada) are designed to keep the Great Lakes watershed clean. The Environmental Law And Policy Center is a watchdog group that holds the EPA accountable for enforcing these laws.

Phosphorus isn't just used in the famed ATP - it's also key to the side rails of the DNA "ladder", and RNA for that matter, as well as the phospholipid structure of every cell membrane ever.

This episode has got me thinking about the term "suds". It's clearly plural, but no one ever talks about the singular sud. Come to think of it, I don't even know what that would be. How would I identify a lonely sud? From where and what did this inexplicable syllable come?

12:45 I just bought this book! Now to remember where I put it…

I think i learnt about this stuff in my chemistry class

4:55 Oh, phosphate...exactly what I thought of at the beginning. The reason all your laundry detergents are now phosphate free.

Love the presenter's sweater. 10/10

Good timing releasing this as the reflecting pools got covered in algae

Remember people, the only reason we got the Clean Water Act was because we sued our own government. The government and corporations love when hippies chain themselves to trees because that means those hippes aren't going to college for environmental justice. The government is due for another class action lawsuit.

That sweater is pretty cool.

5:37 I learned about soap AND why soap operas got their name!

When I was a kid in the early 1960s, we had a plastic tub next to the washer that my mom called a suds saver; some water from the washer would fill into the tub. Not sure how it worked but the water in the tub would be reused and she would use less detergent. She thought of it as saving money but it was also less polluting. Maybe it's a technology we could bring back.

There's a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico around the mouth of the Mississippi River. Contaminants are coming mainly from agricultural runoff, i.e. fertilizer.

“Don’t laugh at the bubbles, the bubbles are serious!” They say as they continue to laugh, lol

Savannah's Roseate Spoonbill sweater is chef's kiss

I remember walking along the Buttahatchee River in northwest Alabama with a friend back in the late 1970s. Suddenly the entire river, side to side, filled with white foam maybe a foot (30 cm) tall. The river is maybe 100' (30 m) in diameter there. My friend nonchalantly said "Oh, that's just the Munsingwear clothing factory discharging their waste". Sure enough, after a while we came to a pipe sticking out of the middle of the river hemorrhaging foam. The pipe was maybe a foot in diameter. I was appalled. He laughed.

I had no idea about the origin of the term "soap operas." What a fascinating dive! Note that the Potomac River was also severely damaged by algael blooms, and is still in poor shape because of it.

It's scary that more corporations are lobbying politicians to remove these safety guidelines meant to protect everyone's access to clean and safe water.

The detergent-phosphate story is one of those great examples of how something completely mundane can quietly wreck an entire ecosystem before anyone connects the dots.

I will never forget being on the wind river reservation in Wyoming and seeing someone light the tap water on fire.