wrote:

My friend has a 32" deep pond. The lilies have taken over. Now the
roots are taking up 24"'s of the pond.
Any suggestions on how to get rid of the roots without killing the
fish, frogs and everything else?

Not really, at this point. Any digging is going to be hard on the fauna.
Dig up one lily at a time, prune/divide it (be brutal - these plants are
obviously so healthy, you don't need to pussyfoot around them), replant it
and let the water clear before doing another one.

In future, pull & divide every year - it took a bit more than a year for
them to get that dense!
--
derek