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In the early 1980s, Jim Schleiffarth and Bob Waits were acquaintances in St. Louis, Mo. Bob was the director of small business development for the county while Jim was a third-generation employee in his family's industrial equipment sales business.
The two men teamed up when Jim developed filtration technology to recover salable oil from crude oil sludge. Bob helped Jim write a business plan to raise funds and was so excited about the business that he left his job to start Tracker Services with Jim. The company cleaned up hazardous waste oils at refineries using mobile equipment. Jim and Bob worked together for a while but then sold the company and went their own ways.
Fast forward to early 2000. Jim was the president of Vacom LLC. He had developed patented enhancements to an evaporative process for industrial wastewater treatment. His customers were using this equipment in large plants to achieve zero-discharge goals and complete water recycling from contaminated wastewater.
Jim decided to return to his roots in oil and gas services by purchasing the Vacom patents and starting a new company. He teamed up with Bob once again, and with Mike Zumwalt as chief financial officer, raised angel investor funds to build a plant in Texas in 2006. The new company was headquartered in Utah, which Bob and Jim felt was a central location for the oil and gas markets. Using a transportable version of Jim's evaporative system, 212 Resources successfully evolved to become the premier water treatment technology across the United States for contaminated natural gas flowback and produced water — creating clean, distilled water to conserve and protect the aquifer associated with drilling. They took the name because 212 is the temperature of steam.
Bob says 212 Resources is distinguished by its unique technology and the dedication of its 60-person staff. He and Jim are looking at developing domestic and internationally-based commercial facilities for their unique processes.
