You might think water gets you wetand it does. But it doesn't get you nearly as wet as it might.

That's because it has something called surface tension. Water molecules prefer their own
company so they tend to stick together in drops. When rain falls on a window, it doesn't wet the
glass uniformly: instead, it sticks to the surface in distinct droplets that gravity pulls down in
streaks. To make water wash better, we have to reduce its surface tension so it wets things more
uniformly. And that's precisely what a surfactant does. The surfactants in detergents improve
water's ability to wet things, spread over surfaces, and seep into dirty clothes fibers.
Surfactants do another important job too. One end of their molecule is attracted to water, while
the other end is attracted to dirt and grease. So the surfactant molecules help water to get a hold
of grease, break it up, and wash it away.
1930s: Detergents based on surfactants are introduced in the United States.
1950s: Synthetic detergents are developed to counter soap shortages caused by World War II
and soon overtake traditional soap to become our favorite chemical cleaners.
1960s/1970s: Concerns about water pollution from detergents building up in rivers and seas
lead to the development of the first biodegradable surfactants.

You might think this is a matter of opinion; mostly it's a matter of science: the effects of
detergent chemicals are well documented. What's less well understood is that all chemicals are
added to detergents for a specific purpose (watch the BBC video in the links below to learn
more), and some of the additives actually reduce the harmful impacts that detergents would
otherwise have.
Surfactants
As we've already seen, these play a crucial part in helping water to attack and remove dirt. But
once they flush away down the drain, surfactants don't stop working: they start to play similar
tricks on aquatic life, for example, attacking the natural oils in the mucus membranes of fish,
stopping their gills from working properly, and increasing their risk of attack from other
chemicals in the water. Some surfactant ingredients (including one called nonylphenol ethoxylate
or NPE) produce what are called endocrine-disruptors, which can affect the hormonal balance of
animals (including humans), causing a variety of health problems and sometimes changing their
sex characteristics. Although surfactants can be toxic to fish and other aquatic life (some are even
listed as persistent organic pollutants (POPs)ones that remain in the environment for many
years without breaking down), most surfactants biodegrade relatively quickly in sewage
treatment plants before they can do much harm to the natural world.
http://www.explainthatstuff.com/detergents.html

Detergents can have poisonous effects in all types of aquatic life if they are present in sufficient
quantities, and this includes the biodegradable detergents. All detergents destroy the external
mucus layers that protect the fish from bacteria and parasites; plus they can cause severe damage
to the gills. Most fish will die when detergent concentrations approach 15 parts per million.
Detergent concentrations as low as 5 ppm will kill fish eggs. Surfactant detergents are implicated
in decreasing the breeding ability of aquatic organisms.
Detergents also add another problem for aquatic life by lowering the surface tension of the water.
Organic chemicals such as pesticides and phenols are then much more easily absorbed by the
fish. A detergent concentration of only 2 ppm can cause fish to absorb double the amount of
chemicals they would normally absorb, although that concentration itself is not high enough to
affect fish directly.
Phosphates in detergents can lead to freshwater algal blooms that releases toxins and deplete
oxygen in waterways. When the algae decompose, they use up the oxygen available for aquatic
life.
The main contributors to the toxicity of detergents were the sodium silicate solution and the
surfactants-with the remainder of the components contributing very little to detergent toxicity.
The potential for acute aquatic toxic effects due to the release of secondary or tertiary sewage
effluents containing the breakdown products of laundry detergents may frequently be low.
However, untreated or primary treated effluents containing detergents may pose a problem.
Chronic and/or other sublethal effects that were not examined in this study may also pose a
problem.
Read more: http://www.lenntech.com/aquatic/detergents.htm#ixzz4QMbvTvpq
Pada titik-titik sampling di sekitar kawasan industri tekstil, nilai Biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD) dan chemical oxygendemand (COD) sangat tinggi melebihi baku
mutu untuk semua kelas air. Pada referencepoint, BOD berkisar 1.7 mg/L, sementara di
bagian hilir sungai nilai BOD mencapai 9.36 mg/L hingga 523.00 mg/L (Lihat Tabel
D.2). Beban pencemaran organik sungai Citarum menunjukkan magnitude 43 hingga
261 kali dibanding baku mutu kelas air berdasarkan nilai BOD. Sementara berdasarkan
nilai COD, beban pencemaran organik mencapai 11 hingga 111 kali di atas baku mutu
kelas air. Surfaktan juga merupakan kimia pencemaran air sungai yang sangat penting
dari kegiatan tekstil.
Dampak terhadap organisme konsumen seperti ikan-ikan, makroinvertebrata,
dan zooplankton mungkin tidak dapat bertahan pada kondisi oksigen terlarut yang
rendah. Serta dapat meningkatkan sifat racun beberapa senyawa kimia terhadap
organisme, reaksi-reaksi kimia dapat menghasilkan gas-gas berbahaya seperti hidrogen
sulfida (H2S), ammonia (NH3), dan metana (CH4).Di citarum. Penggunaan surfaktan
menghasilkan bahaya lain sebab sebagian jenis surfaktan toksik, dan dapat menurunkan

tegangan permukaan air dimana kehidupan beberapa spesies pleustonik (interface antara
air dan udara) bergantung pada tegangan permukaan