Legislator seeks to clean up waterways and air quality

Dishwasher detergent that contains too much phosphorus and school buses that idle too long are in the cross hairs of legislation being proposed by Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake.

Johnson's HB303 aims to prohibit the sale of household dishwasher detergent that contains 0.5 percent or more phosphorus by weight in its ingredients. She hopes approval of her bill will have at least an "incremental" positive impact on Utah's waterways.

"We have to start paying more attention to air quality, to water quality — we have to start preserving our pristine environment, so let's start and not delay any longer," Johnson said in an interview.

Phosphorus introduced artificially and at higher levels into the environment stimulates "excessive" algae growth as it enters bodies of water, eventually reducing the amount of oxygen available for fish and even making those water sources unsuitable for recreation, according to the Sierra Club. Certain amounts of naturally occurring phosphorus, or phosphates, can be found in water sources.

Johnson listed several states that already have passed similar legislation, most notably Virginia, which she said recognized the problem of phosphorus as a water pollutant back in the 1980s. "We're really behind the bandwagon," she said.

Johnson's bill would require that by July 2011, household detergents with 0.5 percent or more phosphorus will not be sold anywhere in Utah.

As for the subject of air quality, Johnson's HB146 puts the sniff test to idling school buses. Part of the problem, she said, is that there are still too many school bus drivers who think they need to leave their vehicles idling for long periods to warm them up.

"That's simply not the case," Johnson said, citing research she has studied on how long it takes buses to warm up.

She wants to clean up the "pretty toxic" air already outside of an idling school bus and the even more dirty air inside an idling bus as the driver and passengers wait to leave.

Efforts outlined in Johnson's bill would be in addition to work being done by the nonprofit group Utah Clean Cities, which is working with Salt Lake City and Washington school districts on pilot programs that are training bus drivers to reduce their idling times. The Cache district soon will be taking part in the grant-funded program.

Johnson's HB146 would create an $817,600 state appropriation to help fund the purchase of new "clean" buses or to cover the $2,100 cost per bus of retrofitting older models to comply with new idling reduction standards. The bill also would require bus drivers to turn off their vehicles when stopped at a school and not start up again until five minutes or less before they depart.

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E-mail: sspeckman@desnews.com