Ok, here it is directly from DES. I called them & the gentleman I spoke to said that only products without phosphates should be used when washing your boat in the lake. However, here is the difficult part, you are not to wash it off in the lake. You are to mop it up or wipe it up with a sponge & dispose of it in a bucket & that bucket of water & suds should be disposed of somewhere where it will go into the sewer system. Otherwise it can go directly back into the lake.
Biodegradable only means that it dissipates quicker & does not leave suds or much of suds. It does not mean you can wash it off into the lake. Nothing can be discharged into the lake, this also means bilge water. I did not ask him if you are suppose to disconnect your automatic bilge pump & risk sinking your boat. The EPA came down hard on them a few years back.
Obviously, this means you can only wash the top decks of your boat in this manner because washing the sides will be impossible to keep it from running down the sides into the water.
This also means that soaping up in the lake even with biodegrable soap as mentioned by Codeman671 & Broadhopper soaps up at the beach, this is against DES & EPA regulations & is not allowed.
Good Luck
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