WDFW Estuary Habitat MOA (2009) -- BPA Scoping Project 2010-070-00

The federal Action Agencies that operate the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) have asked the state of Washington to join in a partnership to expedite habitat restoration efforts for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Estuary below Bonneville Dam.  On September 16, 2009 the Washington Governor and Director of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) signed the Estuary Habitat Memorandum of Agreement (Estuary MOA) with the Action Agencies.  The Estuary MOA establishes a nine-year funding arrangement for habitat restoration in the lower Columbia River.

This Contract Description is a synopsis of the Washington Estuary Habitat MOA Scoping Project Pisces Statement of Work that describes the work to be performed by WDFW to preliminary scope and develop the estuary habitat restoration projects and the negotiated replacement projects under the WA Estuary MOA.  Additionally, in coordination and agreement with BPA, the work performed by WDFW under this contract will lead to contracting for on-the-ground implementation of a minimum of 2 projects directly funded by BPA in FY2011 (Oct 1, 2010 -Sept. 30, 2011).

Prior to the initiation of work to preliminary scope and develop projects, BPA, the Corps and WDFW will jointly agree on which projects WDFW will begin their preliminary scoping. Additionally, the scope of work for each particular project will be jointly decided upon between BPA, the Corps, and WDFW to assure that the work WDFW will perform in this contract to scope and develop projects will not include work that will be performed by WDFW (or another contractor) in the Corp's 536 Feasibility Study which will be defined and performed in a separate contract.

The work WDFW will perform under this contract is in support of the information needed by BPA and the Corps to make informed joint decisions in coordination with WDFW to select projects that will move forward to implementation under the WA Estuary MOA. Tasks under this contract include:

1. Scoping and developing a minimum of 8 projects within this one-year contract.  If more than 8 projects are discussed and agreed upon by BPA,  Corps, and WDFW to move forward to scoping under this contract, additional work elements will be added to the SOW. The specific scoping tasks are outlined in the SOW and below.

2. Work with the Action Agencies (BPA and the Corps) to prioritize estuary projects listed in the MOA and subsequent projects brought forward by project developers.

3. Coordinate and work with the Action Agencies (AAs) to decide which prioritized projects will be preliminarily scoped and developed.

4. WDFW will conduct basic preliminary scoping activities that will provide the data and knowledge base to develop the restoration conceptual model and the fundamental elements of proposed projects. These scoping activities will enable the development of an ERTG template. Additionally, if the project moves to the 536 Program the scoping activities will provide information for WDFW and the Corps to write the SOW for the Feasibility Study, and will support the Corps development of a Task Order for an AE contractor, and other preliminary project requirements. The preliminary scoping will not include work that will be completed under the 536 Feasibility Study.  Furthermore, the WDFW scoping process will provide the minimal information needed for the project concept and proposal to be evaluated through the AA criteria, ERTG, and the WDFW-LCFRB. As part of this decision making process, O & M and risk management will be discussed between the agencies.

5. WDFW will coordinate and come to a consensus with the AAs to determine whether a scoped and scored project should move forward into the 536 Program or be possibly funded directly by BPA.  

6. WDFW will write the proposal narrative for the ISRP review process and respond to any ISRP concerns from the review in an agreed upon time-frame with the AAs for any project moving forward under the Corps 536 or 204 program, or for agreed upon projects funded outside of these authorities.

7. Work with the Corps to identify the tasks WDFW can perform during the 536 Feasibility Study and assist in writing the Task Order and Feasibility Cost Share Agreement (FCSA) within the time-frame determined by the Corps and the Project Development Team.

8. Write the Pisces SOW and budget at the project level for identified work in the FCSA,  150 days before the anticipated start date (i.e. adhere to the BPA contracting process) with a minimum of 5 validation errors. This contract will not cover writing a SOW in document form.

9. Facilitate and participate in coordination meetings with the Action Agencies on a bi-weekly basis.

10. Coordinate site visits with Action Agencies to gain a more in-depth understanding of specific habitat projects.

11. For projects being considered for the 536 Feasibility process, WDFW will send a draft letter of intent to the Corps & BPA for review prior to sending the final letter of intent to the Corps with a cc: to BPA.

12. Subcontracting with the LCFRB to assist WDFW in scoping and developing projects.

13.  For projects where the State of Washington is a sponsor, before the project is approved for implementation, WDFW and the AAs will meet to discuss and address projected operation and maintenance requirements and any potential liability exposure arising from project implementation.  Operation and maintenance costs may be paid for as agreed by the AAs and WDFW, on a project- by-project basis, from the BPA portion of the funding in the MOA.

14.  As part of the project selection process, risk management issues will be discussed and addressed by the AAs and WDFW.

Summary of elements that may be included in project scoping:

SURVEY TASKS:

All restoration sites may need to be evaluated in terms the degree of hydrologic connectivity with the mainstem Columbia River.  Understanding the relationship between the existing stage-frequency of the Columbia River mainstem and the channels, slough, and ponds at the project sites can be accomplished using topographic surveys and by monitoring water surface elevations using GPS and portable submerged pressure transducer placement in strategic locations.  The preliminary field topographic surveys are initial surveys to determine elevations and hydrology information and will not be duplicative of tasks to be performed under the 536 Program.  All surveys will include notifying and working with the BPA EC lead on providing the necessary requirements and documents to prior to beginning any survey. These survey tasks will be completed by the Environmental Engineer and the Environmental Engineer Assistant and may include:

A. Collection and analysis of historical information. Conduct and oversee water surface elevation assessments in existing channels, ponds and sloughs.  Identify the main categories of habitat restoration alternatives; what is the range of possible restoration opportunities, including identifying the overall size/acreage of the potential restoration project.  Computer-Aided Design and Drafting (CADD) will be used to manipulate and present field data in a useful format.

B. Collect and analyze historical data at project sites:  Understanding the historical context of proposed restoration projects will be critical to the success of these projects.  During the conceptual stages of project development the Environmental Engineer will be responsible for determining what historical information needs to be collected, and for the collation and incorporation of the information.  Specific information important in this regard may include  historic photo interpretation of the morphology of floodplain land features available through researching the Corps fill and dredge records to assess the historic placement and distribution of dredge materials, and researching information available in agency documents such as state Wildlife Area management plans regarding past impacts to potential salmonid habitats, etc.

FISH SAMPLING:

A.  Shallow water fish sampling may be conducted if recent documentation of fish presence/absence is not available.  If it is determined that this project will conduct fish sampling, the project location information will be provided to the BPA COTR and EC lead.


====== Decision tree: Contract management in Pisces============================================
In instances where the project will not go forward, and after the most recent quarterly report indicating failure to proceed, outstanding milestones will be cancelled by the COTR.
Specifically, for each Project Specific Work Element, a decision will be made to move the project forward to either be directly funded by BPA, or into the Corps 536 program, or possibly removed from the WA MOA project list. Consequently, once the decision has been made as to which path the project will proceed down,  the non-applicable milestones will be cancelled by the COTR.