Consideration and Approval of Contract:  Independent Contract Agreement (ICA) with Salt River Project (SRP) for the Upper Lake Mary Watershed (ULM) Monitoring Project.  (Contract for monitoring the Upper Lake Mary Watershed.)

This Agreement with SRP is necessary to allow Water Services to continue monitoring the Upper Lake Mary Watershed.  This work is directly tied to the Council goal: Environmental and Natural Resources. Upper Lake Mary (ULM) is an essential water source for the City of Flagstaff. Large-scale forest thinning efforts under the Flagstaff Watershed Protection Project (FWPP) and Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) are planned for the ULM watershed starting in 2019 and 2023, respectively. There is limited information on how altering the watershed by thinning a forest will change surface water runoff and aquifer recharge. Documenting hydrological conditions within these watersheds will provide important information to assist with future forest management decisions. Now that all equipment is installed, we are asking for authorization to continue with a three-year operational contract with SRP through FY20. The FY18 budget includes operation, maintenance, and data management costs. Approval of the Agreement will authorize staff to approve SRP's scope-of-work and project costs each year as a not-to-exceed $150,000.

Council approved Water Services (Utilities) on-going budget request starting in FY17 of $105,000 annually for operation, maintenance, and data management (202-08-304-1061-0-4290). The FWPP bond program (407-09-425-3277-1-4290) has budgeted $5,000 towards this project for three more years for a total project budget in FY 2018 of $110,000.

Council supported purchasing the six SRP Flowtography Stations on April 1, 2014, for $14,850. Council approved the original Independent Contractor Agreement with SRP on April 5, 2016, authorizing Water Services (Utilities) to spend $67,860 in FY16 on the operation, maintenance and data management costs for the six Flowtography sites, and purchase of two new Flowtography Stations. With cost savings from the FY16 budget, seven transducers were purchased for installation in FY17.

On December 20, 2016, Water Services (Utilities) requested Council's authorization of Amendment One with SRP. This authorized the City to spend Council's approved budget for FY17 of $142,000 for the ULM Watershed Monitoring Project. This included a one-time ask of $32,000 for capital costs and $105,000 annually for operation, maintenance, and data management. The FWPP bond program (407-09-425-3277-1-4290) committed to $5,000 annually through FY20.

1)  Approve the three-year contract with SRP.  This action allows for several years of data collection.
2)  Not approve the contract with SRP. This would mean the project would not function as intended. Data collected to date would be less meaningful, and the City's investment in FY15, FY16, and FY17 of nearly $210,000 would be less valuable.

In 2013, Northern Arizona University & the Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) presented a Paired Watershed Study to the Lake Mary-Walnut Canyon Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The TAC agreed that the project was important to begin prior to the occurrence of the FWPP and 4FRI thinning projects, as necessary baseline information. TAC agreed to purchase the flowtography equipment and made the recommendation to Council, along with installing instruments in Newman Canyon: a U.S. Geological Survey flow gauge and sediment sampler.  Council approved the recommended action and the equipment was purchased and installed. After one year, the plan for the Paired Watershed Study partners to take over operation, maintenance and data management for the flowtography equipment from SRP could not be fulfilled, which left the project at risk. One of the partners, RMRS, provided a letter on October 21, 2015 stating that while the they were not successful in taking over the monitoring duties, they are in full support of the Water Services (Utilities) Division contracting with SRP in order to ensure a robust and continuous data record that is available to the public.

Staff anticipates a transition to a more cost effective method of collecting flow data in the future. At this time, seven (7) sub-watersheds of the ULM watershed have sites instrumented with SRP Flowtography(TM) Stations and a pressure transducer. Each station captures a photo every 15 minutes focused on a graduated vertical stake of rebar placed in the center of the drainage. When runoff events occur, the photo captures the height of water against the rebar. Each height corresponds to a table of estimated flow rates, which can then, in turn, provide an estimate of flow-volume per event. The idea is that cost savings will occur in the future as the stations are calibrated with pressure transducer data. The transducers are capable of logging water levels at a much finer time interval, and thus capture the ebb and flow of runoff events rather than the 15 minute snapshots of flows captured on camera. The photos are a very important piece of information to have, as a "picture speaks 1,000 words."  A more time-intensive photo processing process may be augmented with time and cost efficient pressure transducer data.

Additionally, staff anticipate this work will support a larger research effort that has been proposed by NAU Geology and RMRS, which is to study the hydrological response different forest thinning treatments and maintenance practices have on runoff and recharge. It will take years however before there is enough data and analyses to make recommendations regarding which maintenance practices promote surface water runoff to ULM and recharge to the C aquifer. It is essential that Water Services (Utilities) collect the necessary baseline monitoring information in order to contribute to future watershed management decisions. An additional benefit of the City partnering with SRP is the continuity of equipment and data management across all of these watersheds with potential for a broader project and study redundancy.

Based on the specific type of work done by SRP, it is important to match the existing equipment installed in 12 other watersheds near Williams, AZ. The watersheds have similar size, elevation, and forest type which is the one major benefit in partnering with SRP and maintaining continuity of data management across this entire area. For these reasons, it was determined that a Sole Source Justification was appropriate in this case.

In the early 1900's the Lower Lake Mary dam was constructed in Walnut Creek. When the lake did not accumulate water, due to sink holes in the Kaibab Limestone, the Upper Lake Mary dam was constructed and began filling in 1941. Both dams altered natural flows through Walnut Canyon and through the National Monument. In recognizing this issue, the City of Flagstaff came to an agreement with the Forest Service and National Park Service, sorting out water rights but also establishing a work group to manage studies or projects that may result in more flowing water through the National Monument. The City contributed $100,000 to a fund, and recommendations for use of the fund are made by the Lake Mary-Walnut Creek Technical Advisory Committee and brought to City Council for approval. To date the TAC has spent about half of these funds.

All information collected under the Upper Lake Mary Watershed Monitoring Project from November 2015 forward is available to the public.

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