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N.S.C. Agua, S.A. de C.V. | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2014
Investments In and Advances To Affiliates, Schedule Of Investments [Abstract] |
Investments in and Advances to Affiliates, Schedule of Investments [Text Block] | 9. N.S.C. Agua, S.A. de C.V. In May 2010, the Company acquired, through its wholly-owned Netherlands subsidiary, Consolidated Water Cooperatief, U.A., (“CW-Cooperatief”) a 50% interest in N.S.C. Agua, S.A. de C.V. (“NSC”), a development stage Mexican company. The Company has since purchased, through the conversion of a loan it made to NSC, sufficient shares to raise its ownership interest in NSC to 99.9%. NSC was formed to pursue a project encompassing the construction, operation and minority ownership of a 100 million gallon per day seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant to be located in northern Baja California, Mexico and an accompanying pipeline to deliver water to the Mexican potable water infrastructure and the U.S. border (the “Project”). The Company believes the Project can be successful due to what it believes is a growing need for a new potable water supply for the areas of northern Baja California, Mexico and Southern California, U.S. NSC has engaged engineering groups with extensive regional and/or technical experience to prepare preliminary designs and cost estimates for the desalination plant and the proposed pipeline and prepare the environmental impact studies for local, state and federal regulatory agencies. NSC is presently seeking contracts with proposed customers in Mexico and the U.S. for the sale of the desalinated water from the Project. NSC will be required to accomplish various additional steps before it can commence construction of the plant and pipeline including, but not limited to, obtaining approvals and permits from various governmental agencies in Mexico, securing contracts with its proposed customers to sell water in sufficient quantities and at prices that make the Project financially viable, and obtaining equity and debt financing for the Project. NSC’s potential customers will also be required to obtain various governmental permits and approvals in order to purchase water from NSC. In February 2012, the Company paid $300,000 to enter into an agreement (the “Option Agreement”) that provided it with an option, exercisable through February 7, 2014, to purchase the shares of one of the other shareholders of NSC, along with an immediate power of attorney to vote those shares, for $1.0 million. Such shares constituted 25% of the ownership of NSC as of February 2012. In May 2013, NSC repaid a $5.7 million loan payable to CW-Cooperatief by issuing additional shares of its stock. As a result of this share issuance to CW-Cooperatief, the Company acquired 99.9% of the ownership of NSC. The Option Agreement contained an anti-dilution provision that required the Company to issue new shares in NSC of an amount sufficient to maintain the other shareholder’s 25% ownership interest in NSC if (i) any new shares of NSC were issued subsequent to the execution of the Option Agreement and (ii) the Company did not exercise its share purchase option by February 7, 2014. The Company exercised its option and paid the $1.0 million to purchase the Option Agreement shares in February 2014. NSC entered into a purchase contract for 8.1 hectares of land on which the proposed plant would be constructed and in 2012 obtained an extension of this purchase contract through May 15, 2014 in exchange for prepayments of (i) $500,000 paid at signing of the extension and (ii) a further $500,000 paid in May 2013. NSC paid $7.4 million in May 2014 to complete this land purchase. In 2013, NSC purchased an additional 12 hectares of land for the project for $12 million, of which $2 million was paid. NSC paid the remaining $10 million balance for this land purchase on May 15, 2014. In 2012 and 2013, NSC conducted an equipment piloting plant and water data collection program at the proposed feed water source for the Project under a Memorandum of Understanding (the “EPC MOU”) with a global engineering, procurement and construction contractor for large seawater desalination plants. Under the EPC MOU, the contractor installed and operated an equipment piloting plant and collected water quality data from the proposed feed water source site in Rosarito Beach, Baja California, Mexico. The EPC MOU required that NSC negotiate exclusively with the contractor for the construction of the 100 million gallon per day seawater reverse osmosis desalination plant, and further required payment by NSC to the contractor of up to $500,000 as compensation for the operation and maintenance of the equipment piloting plant should NSC not award the engineering, procurement and construction contract for the Project to the contractor. This first phase of the pilot plant testing program was completed in October 2013. NSC decided not to extend the EPC MOU beyond its February 2014 expiration date and NSC paid the contractor $350,000 during the three months ended March 31, 2014 as compensation for the operation and maintenance of the pilot plant. NSC is currently conducting additional source water sampling protocols to comply with regulatory requirements in the U.S. and Mexico, and is also coordinating with regulators to assess the need, if any, for further process and equipment piloting. In November 2012, NSC signed a letter of intent with Otay Water District in Southern California to deliver no less than 20 million and up to 40 million gallons of water per day from the plant to the Otay Water District at the border between Mexico and the U.S. On November 25, 2013 Otay Water District submitted an application to the Department of State of the United States of America for a Presidential Permit authorizing the construction, connection, operation and importation of desalinated seawater at the international boundary between the United States and Mexico in San Diego County, California. The Company understands that this application is currently being reviewed by the relevant authorities. NSC has entered into a 20-year lease, effective November 2012, with the Comisión Federal de Electricidad for approximately 5,000 square meters of land on which it plans to construct the water intake and discharge works for the plant. The amounts due on this lease are payable in Mexican pesos at an amount that is currently equivalent to approximately $20,000 per month. This lease is cancellable should NSC ultimately not proceed with the Project. In August 2014, the State of Baja California enacted new legislation to regulate Public-Private Association projects which involve the type of long-term contract between a public sector authority and a private party NSC is required to obtain to complete the Project. Pursuant to this new legislation, on January 4, 2015, NSC submitted an expression of interest for its project to the Secretary of Infrastructure and Urban Development of the State of Baja California (“SIDUE”). On January 23, 2015 SIDUE accepted NSC’s expression of interest and requested that NSC submit a detailed proposal for the Project that complies with requirements of the new legislation. The new legislation requires that such proposal is further evaluated by SIDUE and submitted to the Public-Private Association Projects State Committee (the “APP Committee”) for review and authorization. If the APP Committee grants its authorization, the State of Baja California is required to conduct a public tender for the Project. The Company presently cannot determine if the APP Committee will grant its authorization or, if a public tender process is commenced, when such process will be completed or whether NSC will be awarded the Project. The Company has acknowledged since its inception that, due to the amount of capital the Project requires, NSC will ultimately need an equity partner or partners to complete the Project. During the fourth quarter of 2014, the Company concluded that its chances of successfully obtaining a contract with Comisión Estatal de Servicios Públicos de Tijuana (“CESPT”) under the new Public-Private Association legislation would be greatly enhanced through the addition of an equity partner for NSC with substantial financial resources and a history of successful capital project investments in Mexico. In February 2015, NSC entered into a Letter of Intent (LOI) with such a potential partner. The terms of this LOI will be binding if and only if NSC and its new partner are ultimately awarded the Project by early February 2016. Pursuant to the LOI, (i) NSC has agreed to sell the land and other Project assets to a new company (“Newco”) that will build and own the Project; (ii) NSC’s potential new partner will provide the majority of the equity for the Project and thereby will own the majority interest in Newco; (iii) NSC will maintain a minority ownership position in Newco; and (iv) Newco will enter into a long term management and technical services contract with NSC for the Project. On February 20, 2015, NSC received notification from the regulatory authorities in Mexico that its federal environmental impact assessment and mitigation plan for the Project’s proposed desalination plant was approved. Included in the Company’s consolidated results of operations are general and administrative expenses from NSC, consisting of organizational, legal, accounting, engineering, consulting and other costs relating to NSC’s project development activities. Such expenses amounted to approximately $3.7 million, $3.2 million, and $1.7 million for the years ended December 31, 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The assets and liabilities of NSC included in the Company’s consolidated balance sheets amounted to approximately $22.0 million and $214,000, respectively, as of December 31, 2014 and approximately $13.7 million and $10.3 million, respectively, as of December 31, 2013. The Company expects to incur additional project development costs on behalf of NSC in 2015 to submit the detailed proposal to CESPT and (if such proposal is successful) to complete the site piloting plant activities, secure feed water and power supplies, complete the engineering and feasibility studies, negotiate customer contracts, obtain the required rights-of-way and regulatory permits and arrange the Project financing. Despite the expenditures made and the activities the completed to date, the Company may ultimately be unsuccessful in its efforts to complete the Project. The Mexico tax authority, the Servicio de Administracion Tributaria (“SAT”), has assessed NSC 3,184,745 Mexican pesos for taxes relating to payments to foreign vendors on which the SAT contends should have been subject to income tax withholdings during NSC’s 2011 tax year. The SAT has also assessed NSC 1,639,001 Mexican pesos in penalties and 913,711 Mexican pesos in surcharges on these payments bringing the total assessment to 5,737,457 Mexican pesos. Such assessment is equivalent to approximately $390,000 as of December 31, 2014 based upon the exchange rate between the US$ and the Mexican peso as of that date. NSC has retained the assistance of Mexican tax advisers in this matter and believes the assumptions and related work performed by the SAT do not support their tax assessment. As a result, NSC has elected to contest this assessment in Mexico federal tax court. NSC was required to provide an irrevocable letter of credit in the amount of 6,712,634 Mexican pesos as collateral in connection with this tax case. The letter of credit amount includes 975,177 Mexican pesos in additional charges calculated by the SAT to adjust the value of the original assessment to its potential future value at the time when the matter is settled by the tax court. In November 2014, NSC obtained a favorable judgment by the court. Based on this outcome, SAT filed an appeal shortly thereafter to contest the judgment. The restricted cash balance of $456,083 included in the accompanying consolidated December 31, 2014 balance sheet represents cash on deposit with a bank to secure payment of the irrevocable letter of credit. The Company is presently unable to determine what amount, if any, of this assessment NSC will ultimately be required to pay by the Mexico federal tax court. Consequently, no provision for this potential liability has been made in the accompanying financial statements. Furthermore, if the Mexico federal tax court upholds the assessment made by the SAT for NSC’s 2011 tax year, the SAT may seek to levy an assessment on payments of a similar nature made by NSC during tax years subsequent to 2011.

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- Definition The entire disclosure for the information summarizing investments in and advances to majority-owned subsidiaries, other controlled companies, and other affiliates. It reflects specified information about ownership, financial results from, and financial position in such entities. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 946 -SubTopic 320 -Section S99 -Paragraph 6 -Subparagraph (SX 210.12-14) -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=34726532&loc=d3e611322-123010 Reference 2: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher SEC -Name Regulation S-X (SX) -Number 210 -Section 14 -Article 12 + Details
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