Enviro-Reps Plants Nontoxic Bacteria in Lakes to Fight Algae

Bob Friedman has spent the last few weeks dumping microscopic organisms into water at Lake Lindero Country Club in Agoura Hills.

It’s an unusual occupation, but the Ventura resident is being paid to introduce the tiny living creatures into the 35-million-gallon lake.

Friedman is founder and co-owner of Enviro-Reps Intl., a Camarillo company formed in 1972 to research, manufacture and market nontoxic bacteria-based products to fight algae and pathogenic bacteria in lakes and ponds.

“We’re going out by boat to seed Lake Lindero. We plant specific strains of bacteria which we know will begin digesting organic waste that has been allowed to pile up there for 15 years,” Friedman said. “We compete with the algae for the available food supply. Our bugs are capable of consuming 6 to 8 inches of sludge per month.”

Friedman and his crew have been doing similar work on the 22-million-gallon lake at Camarillo’s Lakeside Village since August 1996.

“As long as somebody’s got a smelly, putrid lake, they know who to call,” he said. “I believe the majority of lakes--and I have visited quite a few throughout all of California--are in dire need of bio-remediation.”

Enviro-Reps products come in freeze-dried and liquid form. They are sold worldwide through about 20 distributors who are trained in the application process. The products also are marketed through retail locations including nurseries and aquariums.

Friedman, a former sales and marketing consultant, credits a hobby for sparking the Enviro-Reps concept.

“I used to own fish as a hobby, and I noticed there was a lot of algae in their water,” Friedman said. “One day I went into a pet shop and the young man said, ‘I have a product for you. If you put it in the pond it will kill the algae.’ It killed the algae, but it also killed most of my fish. I realized using toxic chemicals also posed a hazard to the fish. I began fishing around for an alternative to nontoxic chemicals.”

Friedman formed a team of researchers to look for a combination of organisms that would kill off the unwanted gunk and leave the fish alone.

“We found that bacteria are capable of a great many things, among them, biodegrading organic waste,” he said. “I began experimenting with many different species to find out which would synergistically relate to each other. If we put a wide variety of different species into the water, their natural function was to consume organic waste out of the water.”

Over the last couple of years, Friedman said, he has increased his associations with international distributors and clients. Much of the business abroad, he said, is with shrimp and fish farmers from Asian countries--including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan--whose livelihood can succumb to algae and bacteria.

“For shrimp farmers, the problem is two-fold,” Friedman said. “A saltwater pathogenic bacteria can take a tremendous toll on them. If they are allowed to grow and grow, after a while they go after the shrimp and fish. We reduce the very high numbers of pathogens and that reduces the mortality.”

Enviro-Reps is a division of California Bio-Labs, a national group of researchers and producers of nontoxic products.