A02.12 PWS National MAR Assessment Tool dated 2026.08.04.docx

4 Aug 26 NATIONAL MANAGED AQUIFER RECHARGE (MAR) ASSESSMENT TOOL – ENHANCEMENT, EXPANSION, AND SUSTAINMENT

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT (PWS)

1. BACKGROUND

The Institute for Water Resources (IWR) is a United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Field Operating Activity located in Alexandria, VA, with satellite centers in New Orleans, LA; Davis, CA; Golden, CO; and Pittsburgh, PA. IWR analyzes and anticipates changing water resources management conditions and develops planning methods and analytical tools to address economic, social, institutional, and environmental needs in water resources planning and policy. IWR provides technical assistance across a broad range of water resources topics, including flood and drought risk management, water supply, watershed planning, and decision-support tool development.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2022, Section 8108, directs USACE to assess opportunities to use Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) as a water resources management strategy, including capturing and storing water (including floodwater) in aquifers to enhance water supply reliability, mitigate drought, and reduce flood risk. In support of this directive, Arizona State University (ASU) previously provided source data to Earth Genome to develop a prototype Flood-MAR screening and assessment tool (RechargeIQ), publicly accessible at https://rechargeiq.earthgenome.org/. The prototype provides a national-scale, indicator-based screening of Flood-MAR viability, weighting Floodwater Availability, Groundwater Drawdown, and Land Surface Suitability. This effort will be a continuation and enhancement of the RechargeIQ tool (RechargeIQ v1.1) developed by Earth Genome.

IWR requires the contractor to (1) enhance the functionality, documentation, and reference data layers of the existing Flood-MAR tool; (2) expand the tool from a single Flood-MAR assessment toward a more comprehensive, multi-type national MAR assessment supporting the WRDA 2022 Section 8108 national assessment; (3) package and structure the underlying data and outputs for current or future integration with the USACE Enterprise GIS (E-GIS) platform; and (4) provide ongoing operations, maintenance, sustainment, and user support.

2. SCOPE

The purpose of this requirement is to mature the existing Earth Genome-developed Flood-MAR screening tool (RechargeIQ) into a sustainable, well-documented, and expanded national MAR assessment tool supporting USACE's response to WRDA 2022 Section 8108. The contractor shall enhance existing tool functionality and user experience; add new nationally consistent reference data layers; expand the assessment from Flood-MAR alone toward multiple MAR types; produce complete user-facing and technical documentation; structure tool data and outputs to enable integration with—or data feeds into—the USACE E-GIS platform; and provide post-deployment operations and maintenance (O&M), bug fixes, hosting coordination, and user support for the duration of the contract. This effort supports IWR's water supply, drought risk management, flood risk management and aquatic ecosystem restoration mission areas and the Civil Works enterprise's ability to conduct a nationally consistent, repeatable, and defensible assessment of MAR opportunities.

3. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

The contractor must possess the following capabilities, which are essential to this requirement and for continuity of the existing RechargeIQ platform:

· Design, development, deployment, and sustainment of interactive, web-based geospatial decision-support tools and dashboards, including the existing RechargeIQ tool.

· National-scale geospatial data acquisition, processing, harmonization, and management from Federal sources (e.g., USGS, USACE, EPA, NOAA, USDA-NRCS).

· Hydrology and hydrogeology subject-matter expertise, specifically MAR, groundwater conditions (drawdown, depth to water), surface water/groundwater interaction, and water supply analysis.

· Development of weighted, indicator-based suitability/screening models with transparent documentation of methodology, assumptions, and data lineage.

· Production of professional, Section 508-compliant user documentation, video tutorials, and technical methodology reports.

· Working knowledge of the existing RechargeIQ codebase, architecture, hosting environment, and data pipelines, and the ability to integrate data with USACE enterprise IT environments, including USACE E-GIS.

3.1. Non-Personal Services

The contractor shall provide strictly non-personal services. Contractor employees are not subject to direct supervision and control by the Government. The contractor shall advise and support the Government but shall not make final decisions or certifications on behalf of the Government nor perform inherently governmental functions. Contractor personnel shall clearly identify themselves as contractor employees in all interactions during contract performance.

3.2 Contract Administration

The contractor shall establish processes and assign appropriate resources to effectively administer the requirement. The contractor shall respond to Government requests for contractual actions in a timely fashion (within (1 ) business day).The contractor shall have a single point of contact between the Government and Contractor personnel assigned to support contracts or task orders. The contractor shall assign work effort and maintain proper and accurate time keeping records of personnel assigned to work on the requirement.

The contractor shall accomplish the assigned work by employing and utilizing qualified personnel with appropriate combinations of education, training, and experience. The contractor shall maintain the technical competence of their employees by providing initial and refresher training as required to meet the task order PWS requirements. The contractor shall be responsible for any subcontract management necessary to integrate work performed on this requirement and shall be responsible and accountable for subcontractor performance on this requirement. The contractor shall also be responsible for insuring timely payment to subcontractors. The prime contractor will manage work distribution to ensure there are no Organizational Conflict of Interest (OCI) considerations.

3.3 Place of Performance

All work will be performed at the contractor's site. Coordination meetings will be conducted virtually. In-person meetings, if required, will occur at IWR (Alexandria, VA) or another mutually agreed location, and require advance Government approval.

3.4 Period of Performance

The period of performance shall be one (1) 12-month base period from the date of award.

3.5 Other Direct Costs (ODCs)

3.5.1 Materials

All materials, minus expendable supplies, purchased by the contractor with funds from this task order and used under this task order become and remain the property of the Government. Materials and ODCs may include cloud hosting/compute, third-party geospatial data subscriptions or licenses, software licenses, and captioning/508-remediation services. Materials/ODCs shall not exceed the not-to-exceed (NTE) amount established the of performance (see IGE) without prior written approval of the Contracting Officer (KO). The contractor shall not assess profit or fee against materials or other direct costs.

3.5.2 Travel

Travel shall be reimbursed at actual cost in accordance with the Joint Travel Regulation and FAR 31.205-46. The COR or Contracting Officer will approve travel in advance; all travel invoices shall be accompanied by supporting receipts. Anticipated travel is limited to one (1) to three (3) in-person project review meetings at IWR (Alexandria, VA) or another mutually agreed location per period of performance. Travel shall not exceed the NTE amount established for the period of performance (see IGE) without prior written approval of the Contracting Officer. The contractor shall not assess profit or fee against travel.

4. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS (TASK AREAS)

Task 1: Project Management and Technical Coordination The contractor shall manage production and delivery of all tasks. The contractor shall:

a) deliver a Project Management Plan (PMP) and Work Plan within 15 calendar days of award;

b) conduct a kickoff meeting within 10 business days of award;

c) provide monthly status reports and meetings documenting progress, percent complete by task, issues/risks, and upcoming activities; and

d) report any cost, schedule, or technical issue to the PM/COR/TPOC within two (2) business days of discovery. Draft documents shall be submitted for review; Government comments shall be incorporated within five (5) business days.

Task 2: Documentation Development

The contractor shall produce complete, professional, Section 508-compliant documentation, including:

a) User Guide (PDF): a reference-style end-user guide, approximately 20 pages, with screenshots of each tool page/view, covering navigation, indicators, layers, results interpretation, filtering/upload features, data sources, appropriate use cases, and limitations. This guide shall be accessible via a prominent "Help" or "How to Use" button within the tool.

b) Captioned Video Walkthrough: an approximately 5-minute demonstration video (captioned) covering core workflows.

c) Technical / Methodology Documentation: data sources, lineage, vintage, processing methods, indicator definitions, weighting schemes, MAR-type logic, assumptions, limitations, and update procedures sufficient for reproduction and maintenance.

d) Administrator / Maintenance Documentation: deployment, configuration, hosting, dependencies, and data-update pipelines.

Task 3: Tool Functionality and Enhancements

The contractor shall enhance the tool's functionality and user experience, including, at a minimum:

a) a new Non-Consumptive Water Use water-supply indicator;

b) interactive feature-identification pop-ups, including clickable dam features that display, at a minimum, the dam’s name and owner and additional feature pop-ups (e.g., water systems, pollution sources);

c) ability to filter dams by Federal owner, including Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Energy (DOE), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA/Ag), and Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), using the National Inventory of Dams;

d) improved reference/context layers and cartography, including State boundaries, major roads, zoom-dependent labels for cities and rivers, and more distinguishable/color-differentiated layer symbology;

e) search by latitude/longitude (in addition to place name, address, county, and HUC);

f) user point upload and screening within a defined area, with location-specific summary output;

g) exportable results and location reports (PDF/CSV) and data exports (GeoJSON/CSV/shapefile); exported data must be filtered to the user's specific area of interest (e.g., a selected HUC-8 or user-defined polygon).

h) shareable map-state permalinks;

i) per-layer opacity controls, dynamic legends, and one-click metadata access;

j) performance optimization and full Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 AA conformance;

k) measurement and basic drawing tools; and

l) A function to calculate and display summary suitability statistics (e.g., average suitability score, total suitable area) for a selected HUC-8 or user-defined area.

Task 4: National MAR Assessment Expansion (Multi-Type MAR)

The contractor shall expand the tool from a single Flood-MAR assessment toward a more comprehensive national MAR assessment using nationally consistent data and transparent, documented weighting. The contractor shall recognize that MAR type is a function of recharge method, recharge objective, and water source—not recharge method alone—and shall document this framing. The contractor shall implement, at a minimum, another three assessment modes, such as those below, each producing a composite suitability output:

The contractor shall:

a) equip the tool with the MAR types above (or another mutually agreed on MAR type with the PM) on a nationally consistent basis;

b) provide the ability to view, compare, and adjust weights for sensitivity ("what-if") analysis, with the default weights documented above;

Composite suitability outputs shall be post-processed to identify and display contiguous areas meeting a user-defined suitability threshold. The tool shall provide functionality for users to filter these contiguous areas by size (e.g., remove areas smaller than a specified acreage).

Task 5: New Map Layers

The contractor shall add the following as reference/display layers available in the tool's left panel after zooming (i.e., reference layers, not new quantified indicators unless otherwise specified), each with full metadata, units, vintage, source citation, and a documented, repeatable update procedure:

a) Groundwater Drawdown — reference layer.

b) Sole Source Aquifers — reference layer (EPA designations).

c) Depth to Water — the contractor shall integrate the ASU-furnished 2020 national depth-to-groundwater layer.

d) The contractor shall assess the feasibility of extending groundwater drawdown from surficial to confined aquifers and of incorporating soil porosity and permeability data to refine storage capacity estimates, and document findings in the data-gap assessment report.

Task 6: Data Packaging and USACE Mapping Tool Integration Readiness

The contractor shall structure the tool's underlying data and outputs to enable current or future integration with the USACE E-GIS platform. The contractor shall:

a) deliver all source data, derived layers, and composite MAR outputs in open, interoperable formats (e.g., Cloud-Optimized GeoTIFF, GeoJSON/GeoPackage, and/or OGC-compliant services such as WMS/WFS/WMTS or Esri/ArcGIS-compatible services) with standards-based metadata (FGDC/ISO 19115);

b) deliver a data dictionary, schema, and API/service documentation; and

c) deliver an Integration Feasibility and Architecture Assessment, in collaboration with USACE personnel, to assist with integration into the USACE E-GIS platform, including E-GIS data hosting, service publication (e.g., ArcGIS Enterprise / REST services), authentication, refresh/pipeline requirements, cybersecurity considerations, and the division of ongoing maintenance responsibilities between the contractor (during the period of performance of the contract only) and the E-GIS program office.

Task 7: Operations, Maintenance, Sustainment, and User Support

The contractor shall provide ongoing O&M and user support throughout period of performance. The contractor shall:

a) maintain or coordinate hosting with a target availability of 99% during business hours and monitor for outages;

b) triage and resolve defects—acknowledge within two (2) business days; resolve critical defects (tool unavailable or producing incorrect results) within five (5) business days; resolve non-critical defects within twenty (20) business days or per an approved remediation plan;

c) maintain currency of software dependencies, apply security patches, and refresh data layers per documented cadence;

d) provide email-based user support during normal business hours (ET), log all contacts, and respond to first request within two (2) business days 95% of the time; and

e) deliver a quarterly tool health and usage report.

5. DELIVERABLES AND DELIVERY SCHEDULE

The Contractor shall provide reports and other print deliverables in publication quality format and provide web publishable versions of such deliverables. The table below identifies a set of deliverables that are required under this task order. Software and documentation deliverables destined for publication or public posting shall comply with the IWR Style Guide and Section 508.

Invoicing / percent-complete: For O&M and user-support activities (Task 7), the Contractor may invoice in equal increments. For deliverable-based tasks where work varies month to month, invoices shall be approved based on work completed within the invoicing period and cumulatively to date (e.g., if 40% of a deliverable is complete, the invoice shall be approved for 40% of the task)

Data rights. The Government shall receive, at minimum, Government-purpose rights (and unlimited rights where feasible) in all enhancements, new data layers, documentation, and deliverables produced under this contract, sufficient to sustain, modify, and integrate the tool into USACE systems, including E-GIS. The contractor shall identify all background intellectual property and third-party-furnished data, and applicable licenses, and shall grant the Government the rights necessary for continued operation, maintenance, and future integration of the tool.

Cybersecurity compliance.

In compliance with Department of Defense Issuances (DoDI) 8500.01 (2014) section 3.c.2, DoDI 8510.01 (2016) section 3.d, and USACE ER 25-1-112 (2014) section 7.1.3; all information systems (IS) and platform information technology (PIT) systems developed and/or supported under this contract shall comply with all DoD, DISA, Army, and USACE cybersecurity and architectural requirements. This includes IS/PIT compliance with DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIG) and being categorized IAW CNSSI 1253 using security controls developed in accordance with (IAW) the risk management framework (NIST SP 800-53). STIG compliance includes, but is not limited to most current version of the DISA published Application Security and Development STIG and the internet access point (IAP) demilitarized zone (DMZ)

STIG.

6. PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS SUMMARY (PRS): Performance Standards

7. GOVERNMENT FURNISHED PROPERTY (GFE)

The Government will furnish the contractor with access to relevant points of contact and any Government-held documentation or datasets necessary for performance.

8. OTHER REQUIREMENTS

8.1 Identification of Contractor Employees

All contractor personnel attending meetings, answering Government telephones, and working in other situations where their contractor status is not obvious to third parties must identify themselves, to include proper marking of signature blocks in correspondence, to avoid creating an impression in the minds of members of the public that they are Government officials. The contractor shall ensure that all documents or reports, produced by contractors are suitably marked as contractor products or that contractor participation is appropriately disclosed.

8.1.1 Contractor Identification Badges: Contractor personnel shall be easily identifiable through the display of badges IAW Contractor Identification (AE Reg. 27-715). The contractor (to include subcontractors) shall provide each of their employees an easily readable identification badge. The badge must include the employee’s name, the contractor’s company name, the functional area of assignment, and a recent color photograph of the employee. Companies with U.S. Government contracts will require their employees to wear these badges visibly when performing work at Government workplaces and while performing duties in the presence of the public.

8.1.2 Contractor employees shall identify themselves by name and company affiliation when answering the telephone, presenting briefings, conducting or attending meetings, and seminars. All contractor correspondence (written, facsimile, and email display) shall include their company name. Requirements for contractor vehicles is addressed under XXXXX.

8.2 Disclosure of Artificial Intelligence

The contractor shall fully disclose all uses (including proposed used of AI) of chat bots, large language models, neural networks, deep learning models, and/or other artificial intelligence code, applications, or services (collectively referred to as “artificial intelligence”), including integrated artificial intelligence features in commercial products, used during development, testing, and/or delivery of any proposals, services, or products developed in response to this contract and affiliated task orders.

Such disclosures shall include: complete identification information of the artificial intelligence used, including name, version, and release information; a description of the specific service or product on which the artificial intelligence was used; and a description of the specific role(s) and purpose(s) served by the artificial intelligence during development, testing, and delivery of services and products, and phase(s) and component(s) thereof. Any service or product delivered to the government shall be free of any constraints, conditions, and limitations on uses unless otherwise specified in subsequent task orders.

8.3 SECURITY & SAFETY

8.3.1 Security:

General security requirements and guidance: The security requirements described below apply to all contract personnel (including employees of the prime contractor (“contractor”) and all subcontractor employees) supporting the performance requirements of this contract. The contractor is responsible for compliance with these security requirements. Questions regarding security matters shall be addressed to the designated Government representative (e.g., Contracting Officer Representative (COR), Requiring Activity (RA) representative, or Contracting Officer (if a COR or other RA representative is not appointed)). Contract personnel are critical to the overall security and safety of US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) installations, facilities and activities, and security awareness training contributes to those efforts. The Department of Defense (DoD) and Army security training requirements specified below, if applicable, are performance requirements; all applicable contract personnel shall complete initial training within 30 days of contract award or the date new contract personnel begin performance on the contract. Within five business days from the completion of training, the contractor shall provide written documentation (e.g., email or memorandum) to the Government representative. The documentation shall include the names of contract personnel trained and which training they completed; the contractor shall maintain training records as part of their contract files and be prepared to provide copies of training certificates to the Government representative. Contractor personnel and vehicles are subject to search when entering federal installations. Additionally, all contract personnel shall comply with Force Protection Condition (FPCON) measures, Random Antiterrorism Measures (commonly referred to as “RAMs”), and Health Protection Condition (HPCON) measures. The contractor is responsible for meeting performance requirements during elevated FPCON and/or HPCON levels in accordance with applicable RA plans and procedures --this includes identifying mission essential and non-mission essential personnel. In addition to the changes otherwise authorized by the changes clause of this contract, should the FPCON or HPCON levels at any individual facility or installation change, the Government may implement security changes that affect contract personnel. The contractor shall ensure all contract personnel are aware of their security responsibilities, including any site-specific requirements identified in local policies or procedures.

Information Assurance (IA)/Information Technology (IT) requirements: All contract personnel performing IA/IT services must comply with DoD training and certification requirements specified in DoD 8570.01-M, Information Assurance Workforce Improvement Program, and maintain required background investigations specified in RA policy. Contract personnel shall provide the Government representative with documentation of certification(s) prior to performing on the contract. In accordance with applicable DoD, Army, and USACE regulations, the contractor shall ensure that all information systems (IS) and platform information technology (PIT) systems developed and/or supported under this contract comply with cybersecurity and architectural requirements, including, but not limited to: security technical implementation guides (STIG)(e.g., the current version of the Application Security and Development STIG, and the internet access point (IAP) demilitarized zone (DMZ) STIG), and the use of security controls developed under the risk management framework documentation for the system or platform. The contractor shall address questions regarding these provisions to the Government representative, who will coordinate between the contractor and the USACE Chief Information Officer (CIO).

8.3.2 Other Security Requirements.

8.3.3 Safety

Contractor Compliance: The contractor and its subcontractors shall comply with Public Law 91-596 (Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)) and the Environmental, Safety, and Occupational Health (ESOH) (DODD 4715.1E). These requirements shall be incorporated into the contractor’s safety and health program. The Department of Defense (DoD) participates in the OSHA Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). Contractor personnel performing services on a DoD installation shall participate in the local VPP. Information on the VPP is available at https://www.osha.gov/dcsp/vpp/all_about_vpp.html.”

Mishap Notification and Investigation: The contractor and its subcontractors (if applicable) shall promptly report pertinent facts regarding mishaps involving government property damage or injury to government personnel and to cooperate in any resulting safety investigation. The contractor shall notify (via telephone) the cognizant KO, COR, and/or other applicable members within four (4) hours of all mishaps or incidents. The government person notified by the contractor will in-turn notify the Safety office.

Contractor notifications made after duty hours shall be reported to the appropriate installation Command Post. If requested by the cognizant KO, the COR, and/or the cognizant program manager, the contractor shall immediately secure the mishap scene/damaged property and impound pertinent maintenance and training records until released by the investigating safety office. If the Government investigates the mishap, the contractor and the subcontractors shall cooperate fully and assist the government personnel until the investigation is completed.

8.4 QUALITY CONTROL/QUALITY ASSURANCE

8.4.1 Quality Control (QC)

The contractor shall develop a quality control plan (QCP) and implement a quality control program to satisfy the specific requirements of this contract. An optimal QCP shall identify potential problem areas and evolve over the life of the contract. The contractor shall provide the QCP to the KO and COR for approval no later than 30 calendar days after contract award. The contractor shall update the QCP as required and provide copies to the KO and COR for approval.

8.4.2 Quality Assurance (QA)

The Government will monitor the contractor's performance under this contract in accordance with the Government’s quality assurance surveillance plan (QASP). The QASP defines how the performance standards will be applied, the frequency of surveillance, and the acceptable quality levels (performance thresholds). The Government has the right to conduct inspections and performance evaluation at any time and at any place where contract performance occurs. If any aspect of the performance is not in conformance with the requirements of this contract, the Government has the right to issue to the contractor a Contract Discrepancy Report (CDR). The contractor shall explain in writing why performance was not in conformance with the requirements of the contract, how performance will be returned to conformance, and how recurrence of the problem will be prevented in the future. The contractor shall complete and return the CDR to the Contracting Officer and COR within five workdays after receipt of the CDR. The contractor shall maintain copies of all inspection and evaluation reports. Government review of contractor deliverables will be guided by the QASP. The QASP will be based on the requirements and acceptance criteria in the PWS and aligned with the design, implementation and testing plans in coordination with the contractor.

9. APPLICABLE DOCUMENTS

· WRDA 2022, Section 8108 (Managed Aquifer Recharge)

· RechargeIQ Flood-MAR tool — https://rechargeiq.earthgenome.org/

· USACE Enterprise GIS (E-GIS) platform standards and onboarding requirements

· DoDI 8500.01; DoDI 8510.01; USACE ER 25-1-112; applicable DISA STIGs; CNSSI 1253; NIST SP 800-53

· Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 AA

· IWR Style Guide and Editorial Checklist

· Authoritative data sources (e.g., National Inventory of Dams; EPA Sole Source Aquifers; USGS/ASU groundwater datasets)

10. CONTRACTING OFFICER REPRESENTATIVE AND/OR TECHNICAL POINT OF CONTACT (TPOC)

A contracting officer representative (COR) and/or technical point of contact (TPOC) will be appointed on each task order. The COR and TPOC have no authority to direct the contractor in any way to alter the contractual obligation. The contracting officer is the only individual authorized to make changes to the contract.

11. INVOICING

The contractor shall submit an electronic invoice via e-mail to the following email address: ceiwr-invoicing@usace.army.mil

A copy of each invoice shall be furnished to the COR/PM when submitting to the above email address. The email subject line shall include the contract number, the task order number, and invoice number. Questions regarding status of payment should be directed to the USACE ceiwr-invoicing@usace.army.mil and a copy of the request to the both the COR (rachel.n.grandpre@usace.rmy.mil) and the Project Manager (william.s.logan@usace.army.mil).