Action 2.
Flood Control District Meeting
Community Development
- Meeting Date:
- 10/09/2018
- Title:
- Agreement with Salt River Valley Water Users Association
- Submitted By:
- Arlethe Rios, Board of Supervisors
- Department:
- Board of Supervisors
Presentation:
No A/V Presentation
Recommendation:
Document Signatures:
# of ORIGINALS
Submitted for Signature:
Submitted for Signature:
NAME
of PRESENTER:
of PRESENTER:
Sara Ransom
TITLE
of PRESENTER:
of PRESENTER:
Deputy County Attorney
Mandated Function?:
Source of Mandate
or Basis for Support?:
or Basis for Support?:
Information
Agenda Item Text:
Approve an Independent Contractor Agreement between Cochise County Flood Control District and the Salt River Valley Water Users Association for flowtography services effective October 9, 2018 through October 9, 2020.
Background:
Cochise County and The Nature Conservancy (TNC)have been in conversation with Salt River Project for almost two years regarding using their copyrighted Flowtography monitoring to help better understand the rainfall-runoff relationship on Coyote Wash on the Bella Vista property which County owns and TNC holds a conservation easement on.
As you know, Cochise County was recently awarded a $500,000 reimbursable grant from the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), with an additional $50,000 awarded and accepted August 11. The purpose of this grant is to complete a Watershed Plan, Environmental Assessment and engineering plans for a project to recharge Urban Enhanced Runoff (UER) flowing through the City of Sierra Vista at optimum location(s) to support the health of the San Pedro River.
The Flowtography monitoring would add substantially to our understanding of the rainfall-runoff relationship that exists on Coyote Wash in support of designing an optimal project. Our monitoring of the Palominas Recharge Project and the Riverstone and Bella Vista properties indicate that there has been less runoff from rainfall than existing, accepted models predict. None of these watersheds have had any actual monitoring in the past and mathematical models have been relied upon to determine design flows and volumes. This is standard practice. However, our initial monitoring indicates significantly less runoff and we believe additional monitoring can potentially pay for itself in reduced construction and operation costs.
The science/technology part of an agreement with SRP was very straightforward. The legal aspects of ownership and control of the data collected is what has taken so much time. County attorneys have worked diligently to assure that County retains ownership and control of the data, which the agreement before you reflects.
Salt River Project (SRP)representatives will be present at the Board meeting to give a short presentation on what Flowtography is and does. SRP developed Flowtography and holds a copyright to its name and use. Flowtography is basically photographic monitoring of a specific channel location over time that gives real time data on runoff events. There is a permanent camera mounted where it will record flow events in a channel location that has been surveyed so that area at any flow depth is known. The photographs are correlated to channel depth and area and therefore flow rates and volumes can be determined. This will be critically important data for our Bella Vista engineering design. We have had some monitoring in place on Coyote Wash for 2 years, but the two Flowtography stations proposed will increase the validity of our monitoring. This will mean that our design volume for the recharge project will have more actual runoff data and therefore we can have much more confidence that with a given rainfall in the upper watershed, the runoff amount at the project site will be as predicted.
This means that we can better size the project to capture the Urban Enhanced Runoff (UER) that is available without oversizing the project. This will save construction, operation and maintenance costs without sacrificing ability to capture UER.
The contract before you is for equipment, installation and two years of operation and maintenance (O&M) by SRP. The equipment and installation is $24,000, year 1 O&M is estimated at $26,570 and year 2 O&M is estimated at $27,365. Additional summary reports are estimated between $6,000 and $12,000 annually. After the two year contract period, Cochise County can decide whether to continue with the Flowtography monitoring.
The Walton Family Foundation has determined that Cochise County can use some funding left from the Palominas Recharge Project to pay for the equipment and installation ($24,000). This is funding that must be committed to Walton approved projects by the end of November 2018 or returned to Walton.
The remaining $53,935 is available in Floodplain from unexpended recharge project funding and the professional services line.
As you know, Cochise County was recently awarded a $500,000 reimbursable grant from the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), with an additional $50,000 awarded and accepted August 11. The purpose of this grant is to complete a Watershed Plan, Environmental Assessment and engineering plans for a project to recharge Urban Enhanced Runoff (UER) flowing through the City of Sierra Vista at optimum location(s) to support the health of the San Pedro River.
The Flowtography monitoring would add substantially to our understanding of the rainfall-runoff relationship that exists on Coyote Wash in support of designing an optimal project. Our monitoring of the Palominas Recharge Project and the Riverstone and Bella Vista properties indicate that there has been less runoff from rainfall than existing, accepted models predict. None of these watersheds have had any actual monitoring in the past and mathematical models have been relied upon to determine design flows and volumes. This is standard practice. However, our initial monitoring indicates significantly less runoff and we believe additional monitoring can potentially pay for itself in reduced construction and operation costs.
The science/technology part of an agreement with SRP was very straightforward. The legal aspects of ownership and control of the data collected is what has taken so much time. County attorneys have worked diligently to assure that County retains ownership and control of the data, which the agreement before you reflects.
Salt River Project (SRP)representatives will be present at the Board meeting to give a short presentation on what Flowtography is and does. SRP developed Flowtography and holds a copyright to its name and use. Flowtography is basically photographic monitoring of a specific channel location over time that gives real time data on runoff events. There is a permanent camera mounted where it will record flow events in a channel location that has been surveyed so that area at any flow depth is known. The photographs are correlated to channel depth and area and therefore flow rates and volumes can be determined. This will be critically important data for our Bella Vista engineering design. We have had some monitoring in place on Coyote Wash for 2 years, but the two Flowtography stations proposed will increase the validity of our monitoring. This will mean that our design volume for the recharge project will have more actual runoff data and therefore we can have much more confidence that with a given rainfall in the upper watershed, the runoff amount at the project site will be as predicted.
This means that we can better size the project to capture the Urban Enhanced Runoff (UER) that is available without oversizing the project. This will save construction, operation and maintenance costs without sacrificing ability to capture UER.
The contract before you is for equipment, installation and two years of operation and maintenance (O&M) by SRP. The equipment and installation is $24,000, year 1 O&M is estimated at $26,570 and year 2 O&M is estimated at $27,365. Additional summary reports are estimated between $6,000 and $12,000 annually. After the two year contract period, Cochise County can decide whether to continue with the Flowtography monitoring.
The Walton Family Foundation has determined that Cochise County can use some funding left from the Palominas Recharge Project to pay for the equipment and installation ($24,000). This is funding that must be committed to Walton approved projects by the end of November 2018 or returned to Walton.
The remaining $53,935 is available in Floodplain from unexpended recharge project funding and the professional services line.
Department's Next Steps (if approved):
n/a
Impact of NOT Approving/Alternatives:
Data will not be available for projects.
To BOS Staff: Document Disposition/Follow-Up:
Send one fully executed agreement ot Sara Ransom.