NIGP 96143: Hydrological and Oceanography Services

NIGP Item 96143 Hydrological and Oceanography Services covers technical consulting and data-processing work supporting water agencies' monitoring, permitting, and restoration activities — cloud-based aquatic mapping and sonar data automation, groundwater and surface water modeling, wetland hydrology monitoring, production and monitoring well design and inspection, permitting support, water quality assessment, ecological monitoring tied to permit compliance, and restoration project management. State and local water authorities, environmental agencies, fire-rescue districts, and universities issue RFPs and RFQs for these services on both single-source and competitive bases, with work ranging from short-term specialized studies to multi-year task-order frameworks and continuing-services agreements.

Recent activity clusters in Florida and the Southwest, with Tampa Bay Water (a three-county regional water authority) conducting two concurrent procurements — a five-year as-needed hydrogeological services RFP with five selected firms on task-order basis (response deadline June 30, 2026) and a four-year environmental monitoring and consulting RFP for six wellfields (response deadline April 29, 2026). The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued a single-source subscription contract for BioBase LLC's EcoSound cloud platform providing automated aquatic mapping from sonar data (response deadline July 31, 2026, estimated $350,000 over three years) and a competitive ITB for Apalachicola Bay oyster restoration cultch deployment (sealed bid due March 25, 2026, with award delays extending into April). University of Texas at Austin requested qualifications for a campus geological and hydrogeological study addressing groundwater intrusion in infrastructure (qualifications due July 17, 2026, with award anticipated September 21, 2026). The State of Utah Division of Forestry issued a small-purchase RFSQ for Great Salt Lake wetland hydrology and invasive Phragmites monitoring using satellite remote sensing ($50,000 budget, submissions due March 5, 2026). Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue District included hydrologic services as one of six continuing professional consulting service categories in a multi-year RFQ (evaluation November–December 2025, contract negotiations through January 2026). Work spans site characterization and predesign analysis, task-order-based consulting frameworks, permit-compliance monitoring and reporting, and ecosystem restoration, with responses weighted toward project team qualifications, past performance on similar scope, regional hydrogeological expertise, and statistical and GIS capabilities.