EVERETT — For many companies, the economic downturn meant lower profits and uncertainty.
Everett-based WaterTectonics used the recession to aim business in a new direction. And the company has never been more successful.
In 1999, Jim Mothersbaugh founded WaterTectonics, which focused
mostly on commercial and industrial wastewater treatment. His son, Jason, joined the business several years later.
As the economy declined in 2008, Jim and Jason Mothersbaugh could see that the demand for water treatment would decline as new construction across the state and the nation came t
o a standstill. The father-son duo decided to aim WaterTectonics in another direction: the oil and natural gas industry.
It was a safe bet.
Just last week, President Barack Obama reiterated his intent to lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil by drilling more at home.
Where does WaterTectonics fit in? The company is trying to clean up a dirty process: hydraulic fracturing used to drill natural gas wells in the United States.
The company landed a contract with energy giant Halliburton to treat wastewater from hydrofracking. Hydrofracking has gained all sorts of notoriety, and involves shooting millions of gallons of water, mixed sometimes with sand and chemicals, into the ground to fracture the rock above a natural gas reserve. Only about one-third of the water comes back out of the ground, and it’s laced with contaminants.
In the West, energy companies dispose of the wastewater by drilling it back down into deep, rocky recesses of the earth, where it can’t be used again. Environmentalists are concerned not only about the loss of huge amounts of water but also the contaminants in the wastewater.
WaterTectonics uses a water treatment process that removes contaminants of the flush water right at the wellhead, said Jason Mothersbaugh. The non-chemical process, called electrocoagulation, sends an electrical current into the water, bonding tiny contaminant particles that can then be removed, Jim Mothersbaugh said.
Despite saving and cleaning millions of gallons of water, WaterTectonics’ technology wouldn’t have caught on with Halliburton as it has unless it made financial sense. By treating the backflow water onsite, Halliburton can use the water again in drilling the next well, saving the energy company the cost of trucking in millions more gallons of water to a site. It cuts the time and cost associated with shooting the wastewater far down into the earth, where it can’t be used again.
Halliburton operates about 60 percent of the 10,000 wells drilled in the United States annually. Although WaterTectonics’ water treatment systems can be used on well after well, the demand for the systems is great. WaterTectonics has a multiyear contract with Halliburton.
As a result, WaterTectonics is growing by leaps and bounds. In 2010, the company’s revenue was up 42 percent to $7.5 million. That will increase to at least $20 million this year.
To accommodate demand, WaterTectonics moved to a larger facility in Everett that has 37,500 square feet of manufacturing space. After recently updating the company’s water treatment process, WaterTectonics soon will be raising production to two systems monthly with the goal of hitting four systems monthly by year’s end.
For the next few years, the Mothersbaughs don’t plan to move production. They like keeping a close watch over the product and being able to oversee any changes to it. Last year, WaterTectonics added 30 employees to its staff, for a total of 50. The Mothersbaughs predict an annual increase of 15 to 20 percent in employees over the next few years.
Although the company does some work locally, it has contracts lined up in Australia, South America and Canada. In the Middle East, WaterTectonics will turn wastewater from oil and gas production into irrigation water, Jim Mothersbaugh said.
With more than 30 years in industrial wastewater treatment, Jim is the innovator of the two. His son, who has extensive management experience, has the business know-how to keep WaterTectonics flowing smoothly.
“We’re a couple guys from Bothell, Wash.,” Jason Mothersbaugh said. But “we’ve been able to commercialize this product” that will be used all around the world.
WaterTectonics
•Established in 1999
Based in Everett
Employees: 50
Estimated 2011 revenue: $20 million
What is hydrofracking?
Hydraulic fracturing is when a concoction of millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals is forced at high pressure down into the earth to fracture shale over a natural gas reserve. Roughly five million barrels of natural gas are produced every day in the United States via hydrofracking.
What is electrocoagulation?
Water is treated using an electrical current, forcing thousands of tiny contaminant particles to bind to a metal ion. The glob of particles is large enough to be strained or separated from the water. No chemicals are used in the process.
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