Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility

The US Geological Survey's Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility, a sub-agency of the Department of the Interior, procures hydrologic monitoring equipment, sensors, and instrumentation services to support the USGS's water-resources monitoring and research mission. The Facility has awarded 128 federal contracts totaling $560 thousand in combined potential value since 2010, with 39 awards in 2022, 10 in 2023, 21 in 2024, 20 in 2025, and 19 year-to-date in 2026. The most recent award closed on October 5, 2026.

Contract competition is highly concentrated among a small number of vendors. Trace Systems, Inc. (listed under two name variants in source data) dominates the award portfolio with 108 combined awards across the last five years, accounting for the plurality of recent transaction volume. Kisters North America, Inc. holds the single largest contract by potential value at $38 thousand. The portfolio spans 16 distinct prime contractors overall, but the top three account for 109 of the last 109 recent awards (100% coverage by count), leaving minimal opportunity for new entrants. Over the five-year window, the top three by potential value—Kisters North America, Inc., Trace Systems, Inc., and Trace Systems Inc.—control only 8% of combined contract potential value, indicating that the Facility's awards are predominantly small-dollar transactional contracts, likely task orders or modifications, rather than large competitively-bid procurements.

The contract portfolio carries virtually no set-aside activity: 127 of 128 awards (99%) are unrestricted, with a single small-business set-aside. This structure reflects the Facility's procurement model—routine, lower-dollar instrumentation and equipment purchases that fall below the thresholds typically associated with set-aside carve-outs.

No recent federal contract opportunities are recorded in the solicitation pipeline. Firms seeking work with the Hydrologic Instrumentation Facility should monitor the USGS contracting office directly or establish vendor relationships with the existing prime contractor base, as the Facility's procurement activity appears to flow through established vendor relationships rather than open competitive solicitations.