pr-20087602--ngwmn-notice-of-intent-msdeq[1].doc

NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD

This Funding Announcement is not a request for applications. This announcement is to provide public notice of the U.S. Geological Survey’s intention to fund the following project activities without full and open competition.

ABSTRACT

OVERVIEW

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has a groundwater-level monitoring network that meets the standards of the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN). They are currently collecting this data for their own internal purposes. This project is to fund their participation in the collaborative network as a data provider. They will review the sites in their network and classify them according to the Network standards. They will add the sites to the Well Registry database for the Network. They will establish web services to allow the NGWMN access to their data through the NGWMN data portal. They will work with the NGWMN staff to map the fields in the database to the data portal fields and to provide any necessary conversions to fit the data portal. Finally, they will provide a short document describing the work done for this project.

RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT

The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will select and classify wells in their existing water-level network to be included in the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network (NGWMN). They will submit documentation on their data collection practices. They will set up web services to allow connection between their databases and the NGWMN data portal and will work with NGWMN staff to correlate fields in their database with the NGWMN data structure. Finally, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality will produce a short report documenting their work on this project.

USGS INVOLVEMENT

Substantial involvement on the part USGS is anticipated for the successful completion of the objectives to be funded by this award. In particular, USGS will be responsible for the following:

The USGS will work closely with the staff of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality on well selection and classification to ensure that the process is carried out in a similar and consistent manner with other data providers to the NGWMN. The USGS NGWMN staff will also be involved in setting up web services to provide Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality data to the NGWMN data portal. USGS will provide guidance so that web services set up as part of this project integrate with the NGWMN data portal. The NGWMN staff will also work with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to map the database fields in the web services with the NGWMN portal data requirements. This will involve mapping field names, understanding units of data, and correlating coded data values.

SINGLE-SOURCE JUSTIFICATION

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

SINGLE SOURCE POLICY REQUIREMENTS

Department of the Interior Policy (505 DM 2) requires a written justification which explains why competition is not practicable for each single-source award. The justification must address one or more of the following criteria as well as discussion of the program legislative history, unique capabilities of the proposed recipient, and cost-sharing contribution offered by the proposed recipient, as applicable.

In order for an assistance award to be made without competition, the award must satisfy one or more of the following criteria:

(1) Unsolicited Proposal – The proposed award is the result of an unsolicited assistance application which represents a unique or innovative idea, method, or approach which is not the subject of a current or planned contract or assistance award, but which is deemed advantageous to the program objectives;

(2) Continuation – The activity to be funded is necessary to the satisfactory completion of, or is a continuation of an activity presently being funded, and for which competition would have a significant adverse effect on the continuity or completion of the activity;

(3) Legislative intent – The language in the applicable authorizing legislation or legislative history clearly indicates Congress’ intent to restrict the award to a particular recipient of purpose;

(4) Unique Qualifications – The applicant is uniquely qualified to perform the activity based upon a variety of demonstrable factors such as location, property ownership, voluntary support capacity, cost-sharing ability if applicable, technical expertise, or other such unique qualifications;

(5) Emergencies – Program/award where there is insufficient time available (due to a compelling and unusual urgency, or substantial danger to health or safety) for adequate competitive procedures to be followed.

(6) Cooperative Agreements - USGS Unique Authority cited at 43 U.S.C. 36d (Federal, State, and academic partners) or DOI Authority cited at 43 U.S.C. 1457b (not-for-profit organizations).

USGS did not solicit full and open competition for this award based the following criteria:

(4) Unique Qualifications

Single Source Justification Description:

Because the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality is collecting the data as part of their own network and are already maintaining the data in their database, they are uniquely qualified to provide that data to the NGWMN as a data provider. One of the goals of the NGWMN is to work with the agencies collecting the data so that we can be sure we have access to the most up to date data. They are also uniquely qualified to select and classify the wells for the NGWMN. They are the local experts and know these sites and the data that has been collected at them. They can best choose their sites that meet our Network criteria.

STATUTORY AUTHORITY

Cooperative agreement to data providers for the National Ground-Water Monitoring Network will be issued under the provisions of 43 USC 2 § 36d.

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