But plenty soon will be available, said Dennis Griesing, vice president of government affairs for the Washington, D.C.-based Soap and Detergent Assn.
"We sort of warned Spokane that things wouldn't be ready by 2008. We had told people it's not enough time to get our best products out there," Griesing said. "We have to do the R&D, restructure our chemical supply lines, maybe build some new plants.
"This is going to be a national changeover. I can't emphasize this enough."
Two major manufacturers have introduced nearly phosphate-free gels that work well in most water conditions, he said, and more are on the way.
At least some consumers in Spokane seem willing to give it a try.
"I'm not an automatic-dishwasher owner, I'm a hand washer, but I know from doing an unscientific poll among family members, they have no complaints," said state Rep. Timm Ormsby, a Democrat from Spokane who helped shepherd Washington's statewide ban -- which takes effect in July 2010 -- through the Legislature.
The transition echoes the elimination of most phosphates from laundry detergent several years ago, but represents an entirely different technological hurdle. Previous attempts to phase out dishwasher phosphates in Europe and a brief trial in Arizona met with implacable consumer resistance.
But Spokane County authorities say that since the law went into effect, they have reduced phosphate pollution from the county's main wastewater treatment plant by 14%.
Scientists say phosphorus -- a nutrient that is an essential component of living cells, as abundant in human waste and yard fertilizer as it is in detergent -- is one of the biggest threats to lakes and rivers whose waters take in a constant stream of phosphate-laden wastewater discharges, agricultural runoff and storm-water flows.
Acting as a fertilizer in the water, phosphates promote the uncontrolled growth of often-toxic algae blooms that, when they die back, nurture bacteria. That bacteria rapidly consume much of the oxygen in the water, leaving little for plants and fish.
The Spokane River is considered one of the nation's most endangered, threatened by mining pollution, sewage treatment plant outfalls and heavy drawdowns of river water that tend to concentrate pollutants.
In an attempt to turn things around, the state Department of Ecology imposed what appear to be the lowest phosphate limits in the nation on Spokane's main water-reclamation plant. And the county instituted its dishwasher detergent rules two years before the statewide low-phosphate law takes effect.
