Can you do an acid digestion or dry ashing then acid extraction, followed by colorimetry using molybdate/antimonyl tartrate with ascorbic acid as the reductant, measuring absorbance at 880 nm?
Method for Quantitative Determination of Total Phosphorus in Water
Morris E. Gales Jr., Elmo C. Julian, Robert C. Kroner
01 October 1966
Journal AWWA Volume 58, Issue 10
The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate a procedure capable of converting all the phosphorus in a natural water sample to measurable phosphate. The experimental procedure consists of the combined oxidation and hydrolysis of the sample in an acid medium, followed by the colorimetric determination of phosphate. The meta- and pyrophosphates present are hydrolyzed to the orthophosphate. The organic phosphates are split off and made available for colorimetric analyses.
I did a quick search of this mentioned topic in Google scholar and came across by this interesting and recent publication exactly describing a new method of spectrophotometric determination of phosphate in water samples. Just below you can find the link. Hope it helps.