Primar Filtration

Will Astor//August 30, 1996//

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From the human point of view, zebra mussels are worse than useless. A fresh- water mollusk with no natural North American predators, it clings to any available surface and does nothing but eat and make more zebra mussels.
But it is precisely those proclivities and the inch-long bivalves’ efficiency at completing their two simple missions in life that are the pillars on which John Long is building a business.
Long is owner and operator of Primar Filtration, a Penn Yan firm dedicated to keeping zebra mussels from clogging lakefront homeowners’ water intakes.
He retired 2/ years ago after a 10- year career as a U.S. Navy diver left him “all dove out.” Still, the mussels pulled him back into the water.
Zebra mussels, which boast tiny, superefficient water-filtration systems, are so good at straining everything out of their ambient medium that they pick up enough toxins to make them inedible. Native to Europe, they are thought to have been introduced to U.S. waters by freighters discharging ballast water.
They first appeared in a remote corner of the Great Lakes in the early 1980s, and are expected to spread to every U.S. lake, pond and river by the end of the century.
Because nothing will eat them and they are very prolific, they quickly clog water intakes, even attaching themselves to other zebra mussels. Massive infusions of chlorine would kill them, but also would kill other more desirable marine life like fish.
Working with Goulds Pumps Inc. engineers, Long developed a laboratory-tested ceramic filter called the Shredder that dismembers zebra-mussel larvae before they can grow up to clog a pump.
Given the inevitable spread of the pesky mollusks and the fact that he has a patent pending on the Shredder, Long sees a bright future for Primar.
Right now, he and a crew of several plumbers and divers have more work than they can handle–some four installations a week, grossing the firm roughly $200,000 in sales this year. Long believes business will more than double next year.
His plan is to get out of the water altogether. He currently sells to wholesalers and other diving and plumbing crews across the state.
Within a few years Long hopes to make the business national and turn it into a strictly wholesale supply operation.
Says the ex-Navy SEAL: “I like diving, but I decided being a businessman is more fun.”