How Hill “forgot” Iqaluit sewage disaster

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Iqaluit’s worst-ever infrastructure boondoggle has come back to haunt the man who was paid millions of dollars to build a sewage plant in Iqaluit that has never worked.

Trevor Hill, former president of the Vancouver-based company that designed and built Iqaluit’s non-functional sewage treatment plant for $7 million, faced a judge in an Arizona court this week as part of an application to expand his water and wastewater processing business in the southwestern United States.

Hill spoke with a slight quaver in his voice as he appeared before a judge in Phoenix on July 2 and agreed to meet the most restrictive conditions ever imposed on a water utility in the state.

Hill’s new companies, including Global Water Resources, hit a roadblock in their application to expand the area they work in after staff at the Arizona Corporation Commission found Hill omitted his Canadian past from his companies’ history. The commission acts as a watchdog over businesses providing utilities such as water and electricity.

Earlier this year, commission staff investigated Hill’s business history and found his former company, Hill, Murray & Associates, oversaw two debacles in small towns in Canada. In 2000, Powell River, B.C. pulled out of a $5 million sewage project and sued Hill’s company when a consultant found he was not following “commonly accepted engineering standards.”

Then, in 1999, Iqaluit city council pulled Hill, Murray & Associates off their sewage treatment project after a consultant found the concrete tanks meant to hold sewage were leaking on test runs.

In both contracts, Hill was paid nearly the full amount, leaving malfunctioning or non-functioning plants in his wake.

Iqaluit now plans to spend $5 million more to make the sewage facilities work.

In light of their findings, staff recommended to Judge Dwight Nodes that Hill’s subsidiary companies, Palo Verde Utilities Company and Santa Cruz Water Company, post $1.5 million in bonds to “protect the public interest.” They also demanded that both companies prove in writing every three months that the bonds are secured.

Staff also want the commission to force Hill to disclose any corporate restructuring or acquisitions that take place.

Investigators also highlighted ownership concerns about Hill’s application. Hill and his investing group bought the utilities from Michael Reinbold, the former president and principle owner of the companies, after Reinbold lost a court appeal. Commission staff noted in a 22-page report that Reinbold was convicted of business fraud in Oregon for damages totalling $34 million.

When Reinbold owned the utility companies, he posted bonds at the request of the commission last year, but the underwriters of the bonds cancelled them the same day.

Reinbold resigned as president, and Hill testified that the former owner no longer has any connection with his companies.

If the judge accepts staff recommendations, Hill will also have to file a report every three months proving that his companies are meeting the state’s environmental standards.

Hill said he will accept the conditions, but told the judge he was concerned that some of the restrictions, such as publicizing his companies’ corporate structure, will give his business competitors an upper hand.

After the hearing, he defended his decision not to mention Iqaluit’s failed sewage project in his application.

“It was all there,” Hill said in a phone interview from the hearing chambers. “It just didn’t point out this particular project [in Iqaluit]. I didn’t think anybody would be interested in it. But when they [the commission staff] asked me, I delivered volumes of information.”

The judge will release a decision in Hill’s application to the Arizona commission by September. His verdict will then be reviewed by a five-member panel of the commission before receiving final approval.