A16_JOFOC_under_SAT_iaw_FAR_13_106-1_Redacted_1.pdf

United States Department of the Interior

BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT

https://www.blm.gov

SOLE SOURCE (INCLUDING BRAND NAME) JUSTIFICATION AND APPROVAL

FOR ACQUISITIONS UNDER THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES

This document sets forth the justification and approval as required by 13.106-1(b)(1) &(2).

1. Contracting agency and activity.

The Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Colorado State Office requests the Colorado State Office procurement services group, to contract on a sole source (including brand name) basis.

2. Nature and/or description of action being approved.

Professional services contract with Martin and Wood Water Consultants.

3. Description of supplies or services.

Task 1 - Accounting

• Develop accounting procedures that accurately track all water transactions associated with the change of water right, including direct flow diversions, exchanges to reservoirs, releases from reservoirs, water held over in storage from year to year, and water traded to other parties.

• Assemble water use data and complete accounting for the initial operational period of the changed water rights, to ensure compliance with water court decree requirements and compliance with expectations of objectors in the water court case who have asked to review accounting submittals provided by BLM.

Task 2 – Meetings With Objectors The contractor will participate in meeting with objectors to understand their engineering and hydrologic issues and offer potential responses to those issues.

Task 3 - Engineering Reports and Memos The contractor shall create memos describing engineering and hydrologic analysis completed in response to objector concerns and render expert opinions in those memos. If required by the water court process, the contractor shall amend previously authored engineering reports to address engineering issues raised by objectors in the water court cases.

Task 4 – Review of Proposed Decrees and Water Court Stipulations https://www.blm.gov/

The contractor will review proposed water court decrees and stipulations to offer edits that ensure that these documents accurately reflect proposed water right operations, engineering analysis, and hydrologic assumptions.

Task 5 – Other Support for Water Court Process The contractor may be required to perform other ancillary expert witness services as part of the water court process.

4. Estimated dollar value.

$10,000. This is estimate is based on the set of issues that have currently been raised during the water court process, and could change if issues are quickly resolved, or if additional issues are raised by objectors.

5. Statutory authority.

41 U.S.C. 1901 – Simplified acquisition procedures (use when the simplified procedures for purchases of property and services for amounts (1) not greater than the simplified acquisition threshold.

6. Rationale supporting use of the authority stated in paragraph 5.

The nature of this acquisition requires sole source contracting, because the acquired services will be used as part of legal processes managed by the State of Colorado Water Court system.

As part of the water rights change process, the Colorado Water Court System and the Colorado Water Division of Water Resource require that any change application be supported by a comprehensive engineering analysis of the water rights to be changed. The change process also requires that the consulting engineer be made available to meet with parties who file protests to the change application, to conduct additional engineering analysis requested by the State of Colorado, and to provide verbal and written testimony in administrative and court hearings.

The change process does not allow consulting engineers who work in support of change applications to rely exclusively upon analysis and reports previously authored by other parties. If they attempt to do so, the State will not qualify or admit them as an expert witness.

The State of Colorado uses this procedure because the consulting engineer is required to be an expert witness, and they must have intimate knowledge of the techniques, assumptions and data used in the historical water rights analysis.

There is no other consulting engineer who has sufficient knowledge to provide the required services within the timeframe required by BLM and the State of Colorado water court system.

Martin and Wood Water Consultants has already completed an historical analysis of the Treasure Pass Diversion Ditch water right acquired by BLM, and this analysis required almost six months to complete. If is not used as expert witness, BLM would have to hire a new expert witness and she would have to create her own analysis and report of the historical water right use in order to provide expert testimony. Going through his process would exceed the timeframes allowed by the water court.

7. Other information.

If BLM is not able to utilize as an expert witness for the water rights change process, BLM Colorado will experience additional financial, personnel, and natural resource costs, as follows:

• If a new expert witness is hired, BLM would have to fund that expert to develop a new historic use analysis at a cost to BLM of at least $10,000.

• If a new consulting engineer is hired, BLM will experience a delay of approximately nine months to go through the competitive procurement process and to allow time for the new consulting engineer to develop expert witness knowledge.

• If the pending water court applications are dismissed because of a delay in obtaining expert witness services, BLM Colorado will lose the opportunity to use the acquired property as intended, which cost the BLM to purchase.

8. The efforts to identify additional sources including the market research conducted.

Market research was conducted to ensure that rates charged by Martin and Wood Water Consultants for expert witness services provided by consulting engineers are comparable to the rates charged by other water right engineering firms within Colorado.

Specifically, works as Principal Engineer for Martin and Wood Water Consultants and that company charges per hour for her time.

Other prominent water rights engineering firms in Colorado charge similar rates. For example:

• Brown and Caldwell charges per hour for Senior Principal Engineer expert witness services.

• Wright Water Engineers charges per hour for Principal Engineer expert witness services.

Rate sheets for these firms are available on request.

9. Future plans to permit competition.

This procurement is one time requirement to meets the needs of the pending water court case.

10. The ordering activity Contracting Officer’s certification that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of the Contracting Officer’s knowledge and belief and evidence that the supporting data that form a basis for the justification have been certified as complete and accurate by technical/program personnel.

I certify that the facts and representations under my cognizance, which are included in this justification and which form a basis for this justification, are complete and accurate.

Contracting Officer’s Representative

11. I certify that the justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief:

Contracting Officer