By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

CLINTON — On five separate occasions last year, Van Buren County was declared a federal disaster area.

Each declaration, recommended by Gov. Mike Beebe and then signed by President George W. Bush, was for repairing damage from a natural disaster, including two tornadoes, flooding and severe storms — one with large hail.

But natural disasters, which caused millions of dollars in damage to the area and killed six people, weren’t the only kind of hardship the county suffered in 2008. The region’s economy was further shaken in October when its largest employer, Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. in Clinton, closed, leaving 325 people unemployed.

The loss of the processing plant, which had been in Clinton for 50 years, and the closing of several of other business and companies in the county during the year pushed the number of lost manufacturing jobs in the past five years to about 1,000, Mayor Roger Rorie said last week.

“Right now we have zero manufacturing jobs in the county,” he said.

To add to the problems, the closing of Pilgrim’s Pride forced the city to close one of its two water treatment plants, which it built more than 10 years ago just to serve the processing plant.

The city still owes about $3.8 million on the facility and was paying the debt off with the $30,000 a month in water and sewer revenue it was receiving from Pilgrim’s Pride.

“We’ve taken our licks,” Rorie said.

But good fortune may be on the way to the county and city, thanks to the region’s geology and the idle water treatment plant.

The city of Clinton, with the help of Siemens Water Technologies, an international corporation that specializes in water recycling, has found a way to use the water treatment facility to recycle contaminated water used in the natural gas drilling process. Officials said they hope to begin recycling thousands of gallons of the water within two months.

The mayor said he has had tentative talks with four companies that do drilling in the area about recycling the water.

And the timing of the project could not be better for the community.

Last week, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality announced that environmental contamination was found in the 11 permitted land farms in the state, where water used in the drilling process is stored after use and later spread on vacant land.

Van Buren County and Clinton are in the heart of the Fayetteville Shale formation, which during the past six years, has become a drilling mecca for natural gas companies, who have been leasing mineral rights, paying property owners needed money and erecting wells across the county.

The city of Clinton, Rorie said, has profited to the tune of about $1 million from the drilling activity. That came from the sale of water for drilling and selling mineral rights on city-owned property to companies interested in striking it rich in north central Arkansas.

But Rorie said he thinks the city can do even better by using its idle water treatment plant to recycle the used drilling water.

Not only will the city make money, but also the drilling water will be recycled, thus lessening the strain the process has placed on the area’s water supply.

“Yes, the city stands to make money, but we’re more concerned about the environment and recycling the water and protecting the city’s water table,” he said.

“They use a lot of water,” Rorie said, adding that, while some companies store the used water in containment ponds or “land farms,” most of the water is injected deep into the earth’s surface, meaning it’s gone forever.

“God only put so much water on the earth,” he said.

Along with paying off the $3.8 million still owed on the water treatment plant, Rorie said, any additional money the city makes on recycling the water would be used to fund a newly created county Economic Development Commission, which is trying to recruit manufacturing jobs to the area.

Rorie said the city would recycle the water brought to the plant by the drilling companies, and then sell it back to the companies after it has been cleaned.

The mayor said he hopes the city can begin recycling water within two months and all that is still needed is a water holding permit from ADEQ. He said he expected that permit process to take less than a month.

ADEQ Director Teresa Marks, however, indicated it could take up to four months.

Regardless, Marks said the department reviewed the city’s plan and said it sounds promising. If successful, she added, it could help the environment and possibly spur economic growth in the community.

“Certainly we’re always in favor and reuse as a general principle,” Marks said. “Anything that is going to be environmentally sound and would bring some relief in that area would certainly be a great thing.”

“It will be extremely good, if it works, and it looks like it will work,” County Judge Robert Bramlett said. “We’re hustling, trying to come up with something, but right now the economy is not in very good shape.”

Two of the four gas companies that Rorie said he has talked to responded to requests for comments last week.

Mark Raines, spokesman for Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy in Arkansas, declined comment.

George Sheffer, vice president of Houston, Texas-based Southwestern Energy Co., said the proposal is being considered.

“While it a company policy that we don’t share vendor contract information, we appreciate the city of Clinton’s innovation and we are in contact with them about the services they will provide with their water treatment facility,” he said.

XTO Energy of Fort Worth, Texas, and Petrohawk Energy Corp. of Houston, Texas, did not respond to requests for comment.

Rorie said he feels that eventually, the drilling water from the four companies will be recycled.

“I’m pretty confident they all will be in,” he said.