RIVER VALLEY and OZARK AREA — Van Buren County resident Donna Adolph moved to the area from Kentucky to enjoy a slower pace and a small organic farm.
Before she knew it ... “They drove a gas well about 900 feet from my house,” Adolph said. “We couldn’t sleep. It was so loud, day and night.” That’s when she began to research the gas-drilling industry in Arkansas. Adolph said that what she found was not comforting - especially when it comes to the water supply in rural areas of the county.
“Due to the drilling, a lot of people have lost their water and have to connect to public water,” she said, “and that is very expensive, depending on how far awayfrom the highway you are.” Adolph said the problem is about more than just the expense.
She is concerned about the harmful chemicals used in the drilling process.
When she wondered what to do next, she turned to Mayor Calvin Tillman of Dish, Texas.
Tillman’s town, north of Denton on the outskirts of the Dallas metro, is years ahead of north central Arkansas in terms of the effect from natural-gas drilling.
“We’ve pretty much got the gambit of the naturalgas industry and compression stations,” Tillman said.
Tillman visited with the Van Buren County community at the Clinton Senior Center on July 16.
County Judge Robert Bramlett did not make it to the meeting.
“I made other plans,” he said.
But Bramlett agreed there is a problem with the water.
“I don’t doubt a bit that it’s going be a problem and it’s probably already a problem,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going get a lot worse before it gets any better. I’m sure this guy didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know before.”
Tillman shared the experiences from his community with those in attendance.
“I told them a little bit of the story of Dish and some of our reactions,” he said. “They are still in the infancy of the process compared to us.”
Tillman’s hope is to educate the residents about the dangers of natural-gas drilling. He would like Van Buren County to avoid some of the problems his own communityhas faced.
“We have spent a bunch of money on testing and legal fees and that sort of stuff, just to try to make the area livable,” Tillman said.
He said many Dish residents have abandoned the area for more urban areas like Dallas or rural areas farther from the metroplex.
Tillman said he grew up with gas and oil drilling in Oklahoma but that the process today is completely different.
“Everybody is concerned about the water,” Tillman said. “We have had some water contamination at Dish. ... If you are in a rural area and you lose your water, your property is essentially useless.”
Many Van Buren County residents are concerned about their roads as well.
“The roads weren’t built to take this sort of traffic,” Tillman said.
Rick Thone of Russellville runs a Quitman-based company that works with the federal gas companies to remove harmful waste from the area. He said damage to the roads is the biggest downside to the industry.
“There’s a downside to everything,” he said.
Peter Giovannini, director of the Van Buren County Economic Development Corporation, said from his perspective, money coming into the community from the gas companies is slipping through the county’s fingers.
“We have to figure out how we can capture all the oil and gas money coming in and reinvest it to build our business,” he said.
Other than the tourism industry on Greers Ferry Lake, Giovannini admitted that Van Buren County’s economy is almost solely reliant on the oil and gas industry.
Tillman stressed that he is not anti-drilling and that using profits to the community’s benefits is a good thing.
“I’m not anti-drilling or anti-industry, but [the gas companies] need to do it better than they’re doing, Tillman said.
Adolph agreed and wants more of her neighbors tobecome educated about the issue.
“A lot of people have no clue what is going on here,” she said. “The people up in the Ozarks where I live, they shake your hands and [you] take their word for it. [People in this area] aren’t used to any kind of dishonest business behavior.” - czilk@ arkansasonline.com
River Valley Ozark, Pages 60 on 07/29/2010