Draft_SOW_11-30-2023_1.docx

SECTION 2 -- DESCRIPTIONS AND SPECIFICATIONS

2.1 STATEMENT OF WORK

EARLY WARNING SYSTEM (EWS) OPERATION, DATA, AND SUPPORT.

I. PROJECT DESCRIPTON

A. Background The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) relies on a network of environmental monitoring stations to reduce risk at approximately 140 high hazard dams located across the United States. Monitoring lake levels, discharge from dams, rainfall and various other parameters on Indian Reservations is a critical service and presents unique challenges.

One cost effective way the BIA carries out its dam safety mission - to reduce loss of human life and property damage caused by a potential dam failure by making BIA dams as safe as practically possible – is to harness the capabilities of a real-time remote environmental monitoring system, referred to herein as Early Warning System (EWS). It is well documented from historical dam failures and hazardous flood events that loss-of-life due to flooding is highly dependent on the amount of warning time received and the warning message provided to downstream communities.

The BIA dam inventory is spread across 16 states and 43 Indian Reservations, from Mississippi to Alaska. The number and locations of BIA dams is subject to change over time. The inventory numbers and locations are anticipated to change over the course of this contract. With very few on-site dam tenders and unreliable cellular coverage on Tribal lands, most BIA facilities are located in rural mountainous areas with limited road access. Thus, power needs must be kept to a minimum while providing real-time telemetry with system redundancy.

The current BIA solution utilizes commercial satellite telemetry to transmit EWS data to an online server with minimal transmission latency. For a typical site, redundancy is achieved by measuring reservoir level with a pressure transducer while also installing float switches at relevant levels to send notification on depths specified in a dam’s Emergency Action Plan. Tipping bucket rain gauges measure precipitation. Equipment is housed in enclosures either attached to traffic pole structures or inside a gatehouse on the dam. Transmissions are programmed for certain time intervals with thresholds built in to increase frequency of measurement during predetermined changes of reservoir level, increased discharge from the dam, or intense precipitation. EWS sites are powered almost exclusively with two 12-volt batteries recharged by a small solar panel. Some sites have AC power that charges a 12-volt battery through a trickle charger.

Detecting a potential dam safety concern or major flood event is only one part of an effective EWS. Notifying the correct staff and emergency responders of the need to verify the situation and/or inspect a dam are equally essential. The data collected by the sensors are recorded and monitored with a mobile-friendly hydrologic monitoring and flood warning system software. This data allows for dam specific warning messages that are sent out via automated emails and text messages, and phone calls from the BIA National Monitoring Center (NMC).

When a specified condition is detected based on EWS data, the National Monitoring Center (NMC) makes person-to-person phone calls to local BIA Agency or Tribal staff. The NMC is located on the Flathead Indian Reservation in Ronan, Montana, about twelve miles south of Flathead Lake. The NMC is staffed 24 hours per day, seven days a week, by personnel from the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation. The NMC is unique to the BIA EWS Program with call lists setup to identify local personnel who are trained to respond to an emergency at each Program facility.

Dams are a significant part of the water resources infrastructure and trust assets of many Tribes in the United States. While these facilities provide benefits such as irrigation, recreation, flood control, water supply, and fire protection like many other dams familiar to the water resources profession, dams on Tribal Lands can have great historic significance not easily described in simple engineering terms. Protecting these cultural resources and the downstream communities is a task not taken lightly, and an effective EWS can be instrumental in increasing available warning time to communities that may be at risk downstream of Program dams.

B. Scope of Work

Overview The work will include all-inclusive support to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) in all aspects of Early Warning Systems (EWSs), including new installations, retrofits and equipment upgrades, performing annual maintenance and emergency maintenance and repairs, telemetry communication support through satellite and cellular service providers, providing complete data services website and software management, and managing the automated alerts. Equipment for new installations and repairs will typically be provided by the contractor, though will sometimes be provided by the BIA, as specified in each task order. The overall general work will include maintenance, cleaning, checking, testing each type of sensor, and managing alerts and related thresholds and rules. The scope includes establishing and maintaining a federally approved database and website system within a FedRAMP authorized cloud service provider environment and conducting the support for BIA to achieve a federal Authority to Operate, requisite licenses and data services, and additional technology development work. A detailed inventory system shall be developed and maintained on a shared website for all EWS equipment that has been installed or is located in the warehouse/storage. A critical component of this work is in-person maintenance training, which shall be provided to local tribal and BIA dam safety personnel.

A list of EWS sites supported by this project plan is provided in Appendix B. The list of EWS sites is subject to change at any time, will likely increase over time, and should only be used for informational purposes during the preparation of bids.

The BIA’s current EWS configuration at most monitoring sites consists of Campbell Scientific Dataloggers with an IDP satellite antenna and/or an RF antenna. The Government reserves the right to select the type of EWS equipment and services for its EWS program. Full and real-time (24/7) continuation of EWS service is critical to the success of the Government’s responsibility and role in the protection of life and property.

Scope Services and Equipment

The contractor shall furnish services and equipment that will include some or all of the following, depending on the needs of the particular EWS site location: labor, materials, facilities, equipment, transportation, hardware, and software support to properly operate and maintain an EWS site and host the monitoring data for users to access. The contractor must provide an all-inclusive support for all elements of the statement of work to include a transition plan that does not interrupt the current service that is being provided.

Project management is incidental to each task and will include regularly scheduled coordination meetings with appropriate contract and federal staff. Coordination is required with multiple stakeholders, including BIA Central Office, BIA Regional Offices, BIA Agency staff, and tribal staff. Advance approvals and subsequent trip reports are required for all site visits.

Each task order will specify the pertinent work required, including the following:

1. Environmental Monitoring Sites: Establish and maintain environmental monitoring sites at BIA reservoirs and streams that monitor one or more of the following parameters: reservoir water surface elevation, stream stage, rainfall, wind speed and direction, relative humidity, air temperature, water temperature, piezometer levels, battery voltage, ground accelerations, and stage in weir boxes for estimating seepage. Conduit lines for reservoir monitoring sensors will typically be installed by the BIA, but in some cases, that work will need to be completed by the contractor. Site installation roles and responsibilities will be specified in individual task orders. Sites will be setup such that they will transmit data via satellite to a centralized database described in a subsequent requirement. At a minimum, all BIA dams will have the reservoir elevation monitored in a way that is robust, accurate, and reliable. Redundancy in reservoir water surface elevation is preferred. Sites will typically be off grid, requiring batteries and solar panels. Some sites have AC power; those sites will need an option for charging batteries or direct power from the AC power supply. To the degree possible, existing infrastructure and electronics will be used to establish sites. Routine preventative maintenance and identified repairs will be performed at each site at least once per year, scheduled according to BIA and tribal staff availability, and with weather/climate and site access in mind. Current BIA dams and monitored stream sites are provided in Table 1. This list is anticipated to change substantially over the time this contract is scheduled to be in place. Additional data from publicly available sources, such as USGS, HADS, and state or tribal monitoring sites will need to be imported into the data management system.

2. Cameras and Visual Monitoring: Establish and maintain camera sites at BIA dams. The contractor shall provide all labor, equipment, and parts needed to install, maintain, and repair a camera site used to support EWS. The camera sites will use either cellular, satellite, or other available and appropriate transmission technology. The set of camera solutions must include options for visual monitoring at remote sites without cellular coverage. The cameras will be setup to view critical infrastructure, which might include the dam crest, spillway(s), outlet works structures, and/or the downstream channel. The camera site design must be flexible to accommodate both off grid and AC power scenarios. Images will be made available to the website for authorized users to view.

3. Equipment: Equipment for new installations and repairs, including electronics, hardware, and tools, will typically be provided by the contractor, though will sometimes be provided by the BIA, as specified in each task order. The required equipment will depend on the contractor’s technical solution.

4. EWS Siren & Flasher Systems: There are a limited number of sites connected to locally owned sirens and flasher systems. The contractor shall provide all labor, equipment, and parts needed to connect the siren or flasher site to the EWS site for data transmission purposes.

5. Data Management System: Establish and maintain an on-demand, elastic, DOI IT Baseline Compliance Contract Guidelines document fully supported, mobile friendly, real-time monitoring, visualization, alarming, and web-based data management tool. The data management system will record all site data and visual monitoring images and make the data and images accessible to all necessary viewers through a web interface. The data management system will be able to import, display, and alert off publicly available information such as USGS gage data or other publicly available data sets. All information on the website must be Section 508 compliant. The data shall be organized in visual graphs and tables that display the data in real-time through the approved web-based software. Contractor’s proposal shall include their approach to disaster recovery and protection of environment and data. The plan shall include their method and metrics for service resilience, fault tolerance, customer data backup, restore, redundancy, disaster recovery, encryption, change management, uptime, and incident response.

6. Hosting Environment: The BIA prefers a FedRAMP authorized cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) solution hosted within a FedRAMP IaaS/PaaS environment. Whether proposed solution is on-premise or fully/partially cloud FedRAMP authorized, the Contractor shall perform all the necessary environment services as well as application and website management support as described in Appendix 2 below. The current system is classified as low impact under the Federal Information Security Modernization Act (FISMA) and shall meet applicable NIST SP 800-53 Revision 5 thresholds as the required control set. The data in the system must be partitioned so that individuals from one reservation can only view data from sites on their reservation.

7. Identity Management: The Contractor shall establish anti-phishing multi-factor authentication to the environment resources and application. Role based Identity Management shall be established to allow some users, such as those in the BIA Central Office, with access to view all the data from a single login. A restricted set of users will have administrative privileges; only these individuals will have access to view user information or edit users and modify website setup and information. Contractor data management platform will include an integrated means for managing users, privileges, and alerts.

8. Website: The contractor shall provide all website software licenses, software programming and support necessary to keep the EWS website and database fully functional and operational =>99%. This may include, but is not limited to, software programming, hardware support and replacement, technology upgrades, monthly data fees, activities related to compliance with information technology security requirements, system for efficiently managing website users and contacts receiving automated deliveries.

Note: The website currently does not have a “dot gov” domain. Establishing one might become a requirement as part of a larger assessment. Regardless, the contractor shall host the website and describe in their proposal any requirements, limitations, or preparations that will need to be addressed if changing to a federal “dot gov” domain becomes necessary. We anticipate knowing the domain requirements by the time (or just after) the full request for proposals is published.

9. The contractor shall comply with all provisions on the website and data collection, alarming, and display scheme for meeting the Department of Interior's (DOI) IT security requirements. The approach shall meet all security requirements in the attached DOI IT Baseline Compliance Contract Guidelines document or specify a justification and description of any alternate recommendation. These requirements will be provided by BIA staff and will define the necessary requirements and features needed to meet computer security requirements of both the DOI and the BIA. Website and server security protocol reports shall be made to BIA as requested.

10. Data Services: Work shall include maintenance of all data and ensuring that the satellite, radio, cellular communications, or other remote transmission interface, as applicable. The contractor shall contract with a private or combination of private and public satellite provider and a cellular service provider, as needed. The contractor shall provide all hardware and programming support necessary to ingest data from commercial satellite systems, government satellite systems, cellular transmission systems, or other means, as applicable. Some sites require more frequent reporting than the federal GOES satellite option allows, but this option might be appropriate for some sites. All data collected shall be stored and backed up daily at an off-site, highly secure location(s) meeting required DOI and BIA Security standards. All data shall be stored on a secure server, and all data analysis shall take place on that server, so that sensitive data never leaves the secure environment. User access to the remote data will be permitted via a secure connection by the user's desktop or wireless mobile device. The contractor shall provide a reasonable fee structure for data transmission, storage, display, and throughput.

11. Data Services Reporting: The contractor shall report costs and data usage for each of the EWS sites transmitting data. On a monthly basis, the contractor shall summarize and report to the Government the data usage and costs for each sensor, camera, incoming data feed fees, and website hosting fees. The Government will verify these costs before payment to contractor.

12. Alerts: Specified conditions will trigger automated text, email, and/or audio phone call alerts. BIA will specify the conditions and text for the alerts, and the contractor will maintain the alerts. Individuals will receive alerts based on their affiliation (individual reservation or group of reservations). BIA will determine who receives which alerts, and the contractor will maintain the back end to ensure each individual receives appropriate alerts.

13. Training: Provide role-appropriate training to BIA Central Office staff and to BIA Regional, BIA Agency, and tribal staff. Training will be conducted onsite during maintenance visits according to local staff availability and needs. Training workshops for BIA and tribal staff will be conducted one or more times each year. These workshops will focus on fundamental skills such as site operations and maintenance, cleaning sensors and equipment, troubleshooting, using the website, understanding the data, and other topics mutually agreed upon by the BIA and the contractor. Training will also be conducted over the phone or via email to facilitate troubleshooting and repairs. The contractor shall assist in planning, organizing, and hosting EWS and related trainings and briefings for stakeholders of the Early Warning System program. Trainings and briefings will typically include technical topics.

14. Emergency Maintenance: Unexpected equipment failures or system problems due to various reasons, such as component failures, power failure, adverse weather conditions, or vandalism could result in emergency maintenance support activities or trips. Contactor shall be available throughout the year if an EWS site has a failure and emergency repair is requested to bring the EWS back to a fully operational site. In some cases, support can be provided through sending parts and instructions and providing training to local staff. Acceptable downtimes will depend on circumstances such as which site is involved, which sensor(s) failed, and other situational conditions.

15. Quick Deploy Monitoring Site: Establish and maintain sites that are easy to ship and for non-technical BIA or tribal staff to setup. These are intended to be used temporarily in situations where additional monitoring would be useful. For example, monitoring rainfall in a wildfire burn area, monitoring reservoir conditions during or after construction (until a permanent site can be established), or during a dam safety incident.

16. Leveraging New Technologies: As data management and environmental monitoring technologies advance, some program functions might change or grow to leverage new capabilities. The contractor will need to be flexible and partner with BIA to determine the best technologies to use and how.

17. Advance Notification: All sensor data associated with Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) or Tribal-owned dams that are handled or passed through any hardware or software system developed by the contractor shall be the property of the BIA. These data shall not be used for any purpose other than those defined by the Statement of Work and remain the property of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. These data also shall not be used by the Contractor for any other use unless authorized in writing by the COR or the Contracting Officer.

C. Task Orders

1. The task orders will authorize the contractor to manage and to perform maintenance work on the web-based application, install new EWS sites, perform routine preventative EWS maintenance, perform emergency EWS repairs, perform on-site EWS maintenance training to Tribes and dam safety personnel and additional work as specified. Only the contracting officer (CO) may issue task orders.

2. The contractor may bill against the funded task order as work is authorized and performed throughout the contract period.

3. At the beginning of the contract, and as needed, the contractor will designate a contractor’s representative whom the task orders shall be issued to.

4. Task Orders will be Firm Fixed Price. All costs associated with the task order shall be established at time of award of the task order.

5. Upon completion of work under a task order, the Contractor shall furnish to the COR a work summary for work performed and time expended. Details of what is required will be specified in individual task orders.

6. Work Standards: The minimum acceptable quality of work that shall be delivered under this contract and its resulting task orders shall be as follows: (1) field installation – the site shall measure its intended parameters accurately and transmit data and display on the EWS website with minimal outages in order to be considered properly installed and implemented; (2) equipment supplied – the equipment shall be properly tested prior to delivery in order to ensure that the equipment works as described; and (3) data management – the EWS website server shall be operational as close to 100% as possible. Unacceptable down times shall result in a reduction of compensation for data handling.

7. Performance: All work to be performed under this contract will be directed by the Government through the issuance of Firm Fixed Price (FFP) Task Orders. In no event will the Government be responsible for any work performed by the contractor that was not undertaken pursuant to a duly executed Task Order signed by the Contracting Officer.

D. Acceptable Performance Levels (APLs)

1. Acceptable Performance Levels (APLs) are the minimum performance levels of specific requirements which the contractor must achieve or risk the Government considering their performance unsatisfactory, resulting in monetary consideration from the contractor. While the Specification of an acceptable performance level does not allow the contractor to knowingly provide defective service it recognizes that it may occur unintentionally. As long as performance does not fall below the specified acceptable level, the Government will not deduct for poor performance. If performance falls below the specified performance level, consideration will be taken at the Government’s discretion. Consideration decisions will take into account the impact on the Government as a result of the failure to meet the performance requirement and the number of times the failure has occurred throughout the contract period.

2. The Government will use a Quality Assurance Surveillance Plan (QASP) to monitor compliance with the contract terms and conditions and identify nonconforming services. The QASP sets forth the method and manner by which the Government intends to conduct surveillance of work under the contract and is subject to unilateral change by the Government without modification to the contract. All work required by the contract is subject to surveillance whether or not specifically included in the plan.

3. Performance incentives for the contractor shall include, but are not necessarily limited to, favorable impact on option exercise decisions.

Appendix 1: List and map of existing EWS sites

Figure 1. Map of existing monitoring sites across the United States. Number of sites and site locations are expected to change over the life of the contract.

Table 1. List of EWS site locations by reservation. Number of sites and site locations are expected to change over the life of the contract.

Appendix 2: Information Technology Service Objectives – Service Level Agreements

1. Service level agreements in this section are based on ISO_IEC_19086 standards to include applicable (1) accessibility, (2) availability, (3) performance, (4) service reliability, (5) data management, (6) information security, (7) service support, and (8) governance

2. The creation and maintenance of software applications and websites with content and links, shall comply with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C §794(d)) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). IT solutions shall provide assistive technologies such as magnifiers, screen readers, braille readers and alternative input devices are available on client computing platforms to make the use of ICT, including cloud services, easier for people with disabilities.

3. Contractor shall provide a zero-trust phishing-resistant authentication in compliance with OMB M-22-09 prior to system going into production.

a. Contractor shall configure system for DOI employees to login using their PIV card using DOI’s authoritative identity provider.

b. Contractor shall configure Login.gov as the standard for authentication of non-DOI employees.

c. Contractor personnel shall comply with Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD-12) that require all federal entities and associated contractors have security background investigations equivalent to federal employees. Background investigations will be performed by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) at the standard level.

4. Contractor shall provision and maintain the environment, website, and application for 99% uptime which limits downtime to below 7 hours 14 minutes 41 seconds/month.

5. Contractor shall provision and replicate the environment and data management tool to allow recovery within 12 hours and revert to a prior state no older than 24 hours. Regularly scheduled maintenance and/or downtime will be coordinated with BIA staff.

6. Contractor shall perform continuous monitoring of hosting environment, resources, and applications in accordance with FedRAMP and/or FISMA standards as identified in the NIST Special Publication 800-137, Information Security Continuous Monitoring (ISCM) for Federal Information Systems and Organizations.

7. Within 30-days after award, Contractor shall deliver a full Disaster Recovery Plan that includes disaster recovery management, metrics, and protection of environment and data. The plan shall include their method and metrics for service resilience, fault tolerance, customer data backup, restore, redundancy, encryption, change management, uptime, and incident response.

8. Incident Response: Upon any security or privacy breach, Cloud Service Provider(s) under these task orders shall immediately (within 1 hour) report all incidents involving potential risks to the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the environment, website or database system. Contractor shall submit an email to the following incumbents designated at time of task order initiation or when notified of personnel changes.

Contractor shall document:

· Government programs and/or platforms

· Location of breach(es)

· Date and time breach was discovered

· Nature of event (loss, theft, unauthorized access)

· Description of summary of events

· Description of personally identifiable information PII) involved

· Number of potentially impacted individuals

· Estimated number of records, data sets, etc. exposed or compromised

This shall be reported regardless of day or time:

1. Department of the Interior - Computer Incident Response Center (DOI-CIRC) at doicirc@ios.doi.gov and 703-648-5655. For non-DOI agencies, submit to their equivalent

2. Contracting Officer

3. Authorizing Official and/or System Owner

4. Information System Security Officer and/or Cloud Service Provider portal within max.gov

[END OF SECTION 2]

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