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

Upper Lake Mary (ULM) is an essential water source to 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. While there is limited research available regarding how altering the watershed by thinning a forest may change surface water runoff and aquifer recharge, the exact response of these hydrological conditions are largely unknown and should be documented. Utilities is recommending the City contract with SRP to maintain the flowtography equipment paid for by the Lake Mary-Walnut Creek Technical Advisory Committee in 2014. SRP has been monitoring 13,000 acres of watersheds within their service area for over a millennia, with the motto "We Measure It To Manage It." SRP has instrumented 12 watersheds of similar size, elevation, and forest type near Williams with the same equipment.  One of the benefits of the City partnering with SRP is the continuity of data management across all of these watersheds.
 

In October 2015, the City's Budget Team approved  a one-time ask of $47,860 in FY 2016 from the Utilities Contingency budget to maintain what is currently instrumented. Utilities budgeted $15,000 in FY 2016 to instrument two additional sites (202-08-304-1061-0-4290) and FWPP bond program (407-09-425-3277-1-4290) has budgeted $5,000 towards this project for a total project cost of $67,860 in FY 2016.

Council supported purchasing the flowtography equipment on April 1, 2014 for $14,850.00.

Approving the contract with SRP would bring a highly functional system of data collection to Utilities and to the many partners with research interests in the watershed. Not approving the contract with SRP would mean Utilities staff would look for an equally robust, but likely more costly or complex alternative monitoring plan.

In 2013, NAU Geology Professor, Abe Springer, presented his "Paired Watershed Study" to the LM-WC TAC. The TAC agreed that the project was important to begin prior to the occurrence of the FWPP and 4FRI thinning projects, as baseline information. The TAC agreed to purchase the flowtography equipment and made the recommendation to City Council, along with instrumenting Newman Canyon with a USGS flow gauge and sediment sampler. Council agreed and the equipment was installed by SRP. After one year, the plan for NAU to take over operation, maintenance and data management for the flowtography equipment from SRP could not be fulfilled, which left the project at risk.  The Rocky Mountain Research Station at NAU 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 Utilities Division to contract with SRP in order to ensure a robust and continuous data record that is available to the public.  

In October 2015, Utilities approached the Budget Committee with a plan to fund SRP to continue their services at the sites. This ask to spend Utilities Contingency money was approved. Utilities is proposing the annual maintenance and data management of these sites be approved by Council for the FY17 budget. Additionally, Utilities recommends adding the cost for transducers at the six (6) flowtography sites and three (3) precipitation gauges to the FY17 budget, as well as on-going funds to maintain the equipment and manage the data. These equipment and data will round out Utilities Upper Lake Mary Watershed Monitoring Project and will be useful for making decisions on how to maintain the watershed in the future.

This work will likely support a larger research effort that's been proposed by Northern Arizona University, which is to study how watersheds within the ULM watershed respond hydrologically to different forest thinning treatments and maintenance practices. 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 Utilities collects the necessary baseline hydrological monitoring information in order to contribute to future watershed management decisions.

Baseline monitoring of the watershed includes flowtography (time-lapsed photo records of surface water runoff conditions in six (6) locations in the ULM watershed) and a USGS flow gage and sediment sampler in Newman Canyon (a significant tributary to ULM). Should Council adopt Utilities budget for FY17, three (3) precipitation gauges and six (6) pressure transducers will be installed in the ULM watershed to compliment the data being collected. The FY17 budget includes on-going dollars to support continues maintenance and data management of all equipment.

Based on the specific type of work done by Salt River Project, it has been shown that in order to match the existing equipment and 12 other watersheds near Williams, AZ. It will have the same similar size, elevation, and forest type which is the one major benefit in partnering with Salt River Project and maintaining continuity of data management across this entire area.

The work we are conducting is actually part of the larger “Paired Watershed Study” that was incorporated into the Four Forests Restoration Initiative Record of Decision. The contract and proposals are to support operation and maintenance of equipment that SRP has already installed. For one, it has been proven very difficult for another agency (Rocky Mountain Research Station) to successfully take over the operation, maintenance and data management of the equipment due to the incredible amount of unique design and large data files to manage and share with the public. If we were to try to contract out operation, maintenance and data management to a consulting firm or agency we risk losing data as well as likely having to pay them to get up to speed on processing the information. Additionally, SRP has instrumented 12 watersheds in the Williams area with the same equipment. It only makes sense for project continuity to contract with SRP. If we chose not to, there is a risk to the Paired Watershed Study that the information collected in Williams and in Flagstaff would not be use-able to draw comparisons.

For these reasons, it has been determined that a Sole Source Justification is appropriate in this case. A copy of the Article 18 Sole Source Procurement documentation is included as an attachment.

As of November 2015, all information collected within the ULM watershed will be made available to the public.

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