🚀 go-pugleaf

Technicat, Inc, a new company in Corona, CA has developed a catalytic
water treatment device.  Here's some exerpts from the newspaper articles
about their experiment on Lake Elsinore:

========================== 02-Jul-95 ===================================

		High-tech boat attacking lake scum

By Sandy Stokes
The Press-Enterprise						LAKE ELSINORE

Boat wakes on Lake Elsinore are frosty white, not the bile-colored froth that
boats were churning up a year ago.

And objects can be seen more than two feet below the water's surface - another
change from last summer, when anything immersed disappeared instantly in green
slime.

What is happening to old "Lake Smell-some-more" and its festering summer algae
which used to turn the town into one of the stinkiest places west of the
Salton Sea?

Part of the answer might be under the hull of a pontoon boat. Since May 18, it
has been chugging along slowly from morning to night Monday through Saturday,
systematically "treating" the water in Lake Elsinore.

The boat owner, Don Pavlis of Corona, said his experimental "Lakesaver Cat"
pontoon boat is effective in keeping the lake from turning slimy green and
smelly.
[...]
"By changing the composition of the nutrients in the lake," Pavlis said,
"we're interrupting the food chain, and the algae dies."

Technicat's catalytic water treatment device uses a combination of metals that
react with the ions in the pollutants and change their electrical charges,
Pavlis said.
[...]
The company's data concludes that the algae population in the treated areas
of the lake is 50 to 75 percent less than in water that was not treated.
[...]
Local lake watchers have seen claims for surefire algae cures sputter and die
over the years, so Technicat's offering is being greeted with cautious
optimism and a wait-and-see attitude.
[...]
"The city's not in a position to jump up and down and say we've found a
solution," said Dick Watenpaugh, Lake Elsinore's manager of special projects.

Technicat, he said, has received city approval for its experiment on Lake
Elsinore.  The water treatment is not adding any substance to the city-owned
lake and the experiment is not costing the city a penny.

"I'm no scientist, but from a logical point of view," Watenpaugh said, "I
would say . . . if they make it through July and there are no algae bloom
you'd have to consider what they're doing may be having an impact."

========================== 07-Jul-95: ==========================

		Credit for cleaner lake debated

DAVE STREGE
Outdoors							LAKE ELSINORE

Something is different about the lake sometimes referred to as Lake
Smellsomemore.  It doesn't stink.
[...]
"It's as fine as I've ever seen it," said Ron Satter, of Four Corner Liquor,
who has lived in Lake Elsinore for 24 years. "We're selling more bait and
tackle, and our tourism is up.  The water clarity is better than it's been in
years.  We've had no smell and kids are swimming in it and not turning green."
[...]
So what happened?  Pick a theory.

Don Pavlis said the non-toxic treatments of the lake by his newly formed
company performed during the month of June negated 50 to 75 percent of the
algae during that period.

For six hours a day, six days a week, employees of Technicat Inc. took turns
"Plowing" the lake back and forth in the Lakesaver Cat, a 24-foot pontoon boat
equipped with five underwater catalysts.
[...]
Mother Nature being good to the people of Lake Elsinore is how assistant city
manager Dick Watenpaugh explained the lake's turnaround.
[...]
Conditioning the lake with chemicals that eat phosphates had been the most
effective means in the past.  Dredging was talked about but would cost $20
million.  An aeration system is another option.  It, too, is costly.  Already,
two aerators are at work in the lake.

A Lakesaver Cat would cost the city $150,000 and pay for itself within a year,
Pavlis said.  But the city isn't convinced it is doing what Pavlis says it is
doing.

Watenpaugh said if hard scientific data showed the process was eliminating
phosphates, a constant ingredient during runoffs, the city would pursue
Pavlis's invention.

"The algae is what we promised to take care of, not the phosphates," said Ken
Kirsch, vice-president of Technicat. "The phosphate problem will be corrected
as the algae is corrected."
[...]
Pavlis said he remains grateful to the city for allowing him to experiment on
the lake but can't understand why it won't give him any credit or consider his
method.
[...]
Dawson theorized that the 23 inches of winter rain flushed the lake out, with
runoffs from subsequent storms bringing in cleaner water each time.
[...]
Bud Attridge, a Lake Elsinore resident for, 16 years, said the wind that the
lake had been missing the previous three years returned this year and aerated
the lake naturally,
[...]
Well, whatever the reason, Lake Smellsnomore is flourishing and
the algae isn't.  Best enjoy it while it lasts.

============ THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Friday, July 21, 1995 - B-3: ============

		Algae behaves; lake is awash with boats

The clear water is helping tourism rebound in Elsinore, and that
means cash.  Will the green scum stay subdued?  Stay tuned.

By Sandy Stokes
The Press-Enterprise						LAKE ELSINORE

Lake Elsinore has been generating more greenbacks than green slime this summer.

The formerly algae-infested lake sparkles like an aquamarine gem and draws
300 to 400 boaters every Saturday and Sunday more than three times the number
of boaters it drew last year.

So far this season, the city has collected $99,300 in boat launch and day use
fees, said Dick Wattenpaugh, the city's manager of special projects.  If the
trend continues, the lake could recoup at least one-third of the $435,000 the
city expects to spend on maintenance and lake police patrol this year.

This time last year the lake had generated only $21,855.
[...]
Last summer Lake Elsinore's algae infestation was raising a
stink and covering boats, swimmers, ducks and anything else that
went into it with green scum.

The city's marine biologist, Pat Kilroy, said he's not sure why
the lake looks so good this summer.

Torrential storms last winter flushed the lake for the first
time in 15 years and may have washed away some of the algae. 
But the flushing alone can't explain the good water quality,
Kilroy said.
[...]
One lake-scouring program the city is watching is an experimental pontoon boat
that has been cruising the lake every day since May.  Technicat Inc., a
company that specializes in water treatment for agriculture, was granted
permission by the city to try its Lakesaver Cat algae control boat on Lake
Elsinore.

Technicat officials say the boat's water treatment cartridges contain a metal
that changes the electrical charge of ions in the phosphates and turns it into
a form the algae can't use for food.
[...]
City officials are cautiously optimistic about the Technicat experiment.  The
lake looks good, but "it's too soon to say that its the Lakesaver Cat lowering
the algae," Kilroy said.  When the company finishes its experiment this month,
the city will conduct tests to measure the amount of algae in the water.

"Algal blooms come and go for a variety of factors that are not well
understood," he said.  Water that is pristine and sparkling this week could
suddenly turn putrid green if the algae decides its time to bloom.
[...]

===================== Lakesaver boat leaving clean lake =====================

The experiment ends this weekend.  The boat owner predicts algae will return
after the departure.

By Sandy Stoke
The Press-Enterprise						LAKE ELSINORE

 Lake Elsinore will not keep its frosty white boat wakes and sparkling
algae-free look much longer predicts Don Pavlis, chief executive officer of
Technicat Inc.
[...]
Pavlis says his experiment has proven that the prototype Lakesaver Cat boat
is effective.  July is almost over and there was no nasty algae bloom.

But if Pavlis' hunch is right, the sparkling lake will revert to the old
fetid, bile-colored "Lake Smell-some-more" in a week or two as the algae
takes hold again.

Nevertheless, the experiment, he says "proves it is possible to control the
algae and eliminate the odor and fish kills on a large body of water," using
a relatively inexpensive technology.
[...]
The lake looks very good, therefore, "the Lakesaver Cat may be doing
something," acknowledged Assistant City Manager Dick Watenpaugh.  However, he
is not ready to laud the boat as an algae cure.  At the close of Technicat's
experiment, he said, the city will conduct its own tests on the lake to
measure nutrient content and algae.

He said he hopes that the city's test results uphold Technicat's findings
because, "it could be an inexpensive way to treat the lake," Watenpaugh said.

Technicat's specially equipped boat cost about $150,000.

The company's main business involves using the same method to treat water for
agricultural users, Pavlis said.  Technicat has successfully eliminated algae
from irrigation ponds covering several acres, he said, but has never before
attempted to control algae on a body of water as large as the 7-square-mile
Lake Elsinore.
[...]

============= B-2  Friday, August 4, 1995 - THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE =============

	Officials doubt boat cleaned Lake Elsinore:  No contract

By Sandy Stokes
The Press-Enterprise						LAKE ELSINORE

Water experts on the technical committee of the Lake Elsinore Management
Authority on Thursday couldn't figure out the reason for the sparkling clean
water in Lake Elsinore this summer.

They can't say why the lake's notorious algae are not sliming the water and
fouling the air.  Still, they're not ready to give the credit to the
experimental Lakesaver Cat boat that pushed water treatment cartridges through
the lake during a two-month experiment that ended Saturday.
[...]
"In the absence of any hard data, the technical committee would agree it is
unwise at this time for the city to spend the money," said Burnie Cavender,
the management authority's executive director.

Don Pavlis, chief executive officer of Technicat, contends that the appearance
of the lake is proof enough.  He said: "If it walks like a duck, quacks like a
duck, has a yellow bill and webbed feet, it might be a duck."
[...]
Also on Thursday the committee reviewed the first batch of lake
monitoring results from the engineering firm Black & Veatch. 
The authority hired the firm earlier this year to monitor the
levels of the phosphates and other nutrients that feed the
troublesome algae.
[...]
The monitoring is the first phase of a lake cleanup plan proposed by Black &
Veatch.  The plan calls for lake aeration, algae harvesting, adding aquatic
plants to starve out algae, stocking algae-eating fish and using reclaimed
water, treated if necessary, to keep the lake level constant.  The project
would cost about $8 million over the next nine years.
[...]
"Maybe we have a nitrogen limiting situation," Anderson said. 
"Maybe, with any luck, we're not going to have an algae disaster
this year.

Pavlis, of Technicat said nitrogen reduction is one of the effects of his
company's water treatment program.

According to Bud Attridge, president of the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water
District board, chemical studies and experiments are a waste of time and money.

He said there is a simple, natural reason the lake does not have a rank crop
of algae this year: "The wind has been blowing," he said.  "You can laugh if
you want to, but any old timer who lives on the lake can tell you that the
algae doesn't grow when the wind blows," he said.  "The wind aerates the lake."

Attridge has lived on the shore of the lake for more than 15 years.  He said
he's observed that algae blooms occur only in years that haven't been windy.

As proof of his theory, he point out that there have been whitecaps on the
lake nearly every afternoon this year.

============ THE PRESS-ENTERPRISE - Monday, August 7, 1995 - B-3 ============

		Letting the Lake Elsinore secret out
								LAKE ELSINORE

Hundreds of weekend water-skiers have discovered that Lake Elsinore does not
stink.
[...]
The lake certainly has been a mess in past summers.  So far, this year is
different but city officials nervously monitor the water for the dreaded
signs of algae.

Heavy rains last winter and spring filled the lake with fresh water.  The lake
now has an outflow channel that prevents flooding and improves circulation.

Lake Elsinore has fought dreaded blooms of algae for years. This year,
Technicat Inc. of Corona operated an experimental pontoon boat on the water
for two months.

The Lakesaver Cat treated the water as it flowed through cartridges.  The
company, which hopes to sell the process to the city, maintained that the
treatment kept algae from blooming.

One thing is certain: the lake didn't turn the usual rancid summertime green
while the pontoon boat worked the water.
[...]

=============================== 08-Aug-95: ===============================

Algae sightings on Lake Elsinore have been rare this summer, and the
characteristic stench that accompanies algae blooms has not been detected.

Yet in the murky depths of the sparkling azure lake, the green slime began
choking the life out of its first summer victims this week.  City officials
hope this week's fish kill does not signal the start of another algae
disaster, which could kill off the lake's new tourist boom as well.

So far, the fish kill is minor, said Assistant City Manager Dick Watenpaugh.

Monday was the first day there was a scattering of lifeless fish, suffocated
by the algae during the night, floating on the lake surface.

By Thursday, city workers had scooped 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of dead fish from
the lake.

Water quality experts assembled by the Lake Elsinore Management Authority have
been scratching their heads trying to figure out why the algae have been lying
low.  The experts have been skeptical of the success claimed by Technicat
Inc., a Corona firm that operated an experimental water treatment boat on the
lake for two months this summer, saying there is no scientific data to support
Technicat's claim that it controlled algae growth.
[...]
"Nature has been kind to us this year," Watenpaugh said, because blooming
algae have not reached the lake's surface to foul the water and air above it.
Despite the lake's pristine appearance, the water is rich with the phosphorus
that causes algae to thrive.  The phosphorus, which acts as a fertilizer,
comes into the lake from the San Jacinto River.  The 700-square-mile San
Jacinto River watershed collects storm runoff from Hemet, Moreno Valley and
San Jacinto and dairy land between those communities.
[...]
During July, when about 700 boats were on the lake every weekend, the city
collected $46,376 in lake-use fees, according to Community Services Department
figures.  A year ago during July, when the lake surface had far fewer boaters
and swimmers, only $14,385 was collected.
[...]

========== Lake Elsinore's slime slips into killing mode ==========

By Sandy Stokes
The Press-Enterprise                                            LAKE ELSINORE

Algae cause water along the shore of Lake Elsinore to turn green.