SPN Approved JA WSD Fish Hatchery SAM Notice.pdf

Control No: SPN-LS2026-1

Justification and Approval for

Other than Full and Open Competition

Contracting Activity: US Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District (SPN), 450 Golden Gate Ave, San Francisco, CA 94102

Description of Action: Approval is requested for a new firm-fixed price contract with a twelve (12) month base year and two (2) one-year options for the services necessary to perform propagation, rearing and releasing services of 200,000 steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss from the Congressman Don Clausen Fish Hatchery (DCFH); also known as Warm Springs Hatchery) and 200,000 steelhead from the Coyote Valley Fish Facility (CVFF) as defined in this Performance Work Statement except for those items specified as government furnished property and services. The Government will continue to contract directly with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, as done in previous years, to provide the required services. The contract will be funded with Operations and Maintenance funds.

Description of Supplies/Services: The DCFH was first opened in 1980 to mitigate for the loss of fish and fish habitat as a result of the construction of Warm Springs Dam. The CVFF was built at Coyote Valley Dam in 1990-1991, but due to poor summertime water quality, year-round rearing was not possible. At this same time, the DCFH was expanded to accommodate rearing of the Coyote Valley steelhead, and CVFF has continued to be used for spawning returning fish and imprinting prior to release. Between 1999-2000, use of DCFH was expanded again to accommodate a fledgling Coho Broodstock Program, which is now fully incorporated into the operation of the hatchery. The contract is required to provide compensation, which means hatching and releasing fish to mitigate the loss of spawning and rearing habitat that supported an estimated 6,000 wild, adult steelhead in Dry Creek, and estimated 4,000 wild, adult steelhead in the East Branch of the Russian River above Coyote Valley Dam. The contract will also provide relocation of Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytschta adults, and surveillance and support at the Coho facility. The period of performance will be 1 2026 through 2027 for the base year, 2027 through 2028 for Option Year 1, and 202 through

20 for Option Year 2. The estimated total value the base and two (2), one (1) year option periods. The exercise of options will be IAW FAR 52.217-9 Option to Extend Services as the Government will require the continued performance of the services within the limits and rates specified in the contract.

Requirements for each contract year (Base and Options) are as follows:

� Propagate, rear and release 200,000 steelhead from the DCFH to compensate for the loss of spawning and rearing habitat for an estimated 6,000 wild, adult steelhead.

� Propagate, rear and release 200,000 steelhead from CVFF to compensate for the loss of spawning and rearing habitat in the East Branch of the Russian River above Coyote Valley Dam for an estimated 4,000 wild, adult steelhead.

� Relocate Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytschta adults returning to DCFH to the Russian River above the confluence of Dry Creek and those returning to CVFF to the main- stem Russian River or to the West Fork, Russian River.

� Provide night and weekend surveillance of the Coho facility (as USACE staff are not present), process any Coho returns to DCFH or CVFF, and provide spawning and releasing transportation support.

� Estimated total value for the base and two (2), one (1) year option periods. The exercise of options will be IAW FAR 52.217-9 Option to Extend Services as the Government will require the continued performance of the services within the limits and rates specified in the contract.

4. Authority Cited:

Pursuant to 10 U.S.C. § 3204(a)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), there is only one responsible source, and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.

Reason for Authority Cited:

Background: The services being sought continue the highly specialized efforts in support of shared Federal and State public policies of species preservation. USACE is authorized to respond to fish losses on the Russian River through PL 93-251, § 95, 88 Stat. 40 (Mar. 7, 1974), which states that "The project for Russian River, Dry Creek, California is further modified to authorize and direct the Secretary of the Army, acting through the Chief of Engineers, to compensate for fish losses on the Russian River which may be attributed to the operation of the Coyote Dam component of the project through measures such as possible expansion of the capacity of the fish hatchery at the Warm Springs Dam component of the project."

This authority is supplemented by requirements imposed by: (1) a 24 Sep 2008 Biological Opinion for Water Supply, Flood Control Operations, and Channel Maintenance conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Sonoma County Water Agency, and the Mendocino County Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District in the Russian River watershed, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service under an Endangered Species Act Section 7 Consultation; and {2) a 24 Dec 1997 Memorandum of Understanding between USACE, National Marine Fisheries Service, and Sonoma County Water Agency.

These requirements are appropriately performed by the State of California Department of Fish and Wildlife [CA DFW]..

Justification: IAW FAR 6.302-1(b)(1)(ii) use of this authority may be appropriate in situations such as �unique supplies or services available from only one or a limited number of sources or from only one or a limited number of suppliers with unique capabilities. � CA DFW is a nonprofit institution that has the required specialized experience, and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Section 10 (a)(1)(A) Scientific Permit for working with Endangered Species that is necessary for this contract. The CA DFW provides veterinary pathology that surveils and intervenes to adopt management and treatment protocols to sustain success of each species.

This work is informed by local observations/measurements, as well as, research trends in natural and hatchery produced fish in other watersheds of CA. Furthermore, CA DFW�s scientific research in invasive species governs release points for the coho salmon program. The CA DFW is also a member of the technical advisory committee for both the steelhead and coho programs, bringing a statewide knowledge base to the interpretation of watershed fish monitoring research and hatchery genetics research to successful hatchery operations. The CA DFW are the only one responsible and available source, due to their highly specialized experience. CA DFW is uniquely qualified to perform this work, because of the expertise that the agency brings to work, and because it has gained critical experience by performing this work for the Corps of Engineers for many years. The contract will help maintain the essential services historically provided by CA DFW.

c. Alternatives: There are currently no alternatives to awarding the contract to California Department of Fish and Wildlife. There are no other vendors who have presented themselves as being capable, or desiring, to do this job. The requirement of the vendor for this contract is to be eligible for and able to obtain a National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Section 10 (a)(1)(A) Scientific Permit for working with Endangered Species. No other vendor with these qualifications has responded to a sources sought in the past 10+ years of contracting this requirement.

d. Impact: In essence, the program�s success is deeply intertwined with CA DFW�s accumulated knowledge and capabilities. Furthermore, due to no other responses to the sources sought, the time incurred to find a capable vendor to compete this requirement would result in lost time on behalf of the acquisition team. Finding and introducing a new vendor would necessitate a learning curve, disrupting the program and risking the preservation efforts for the steelhead population.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition:

a. Effective competition. Effective competition is not anticipated for this acquisition.

Although this procurement is exempt from notice requirements under FAR 5.202(a)(10), notice was published on September 15, 2025, to System for Award Management (SAM) sam.gov as a Sources Sought Notice (no. W912P725S0013). Any responses to the notice would have been considered. A Notice of Intent to Sole Source will be also be posted to SAM.gov.

b. Subcontracting competition. No efforts were made by the Government to assure that the prime contractor obtained as much competition as possible in subcontracting.

Based on the relatively low magnitude and the specialized nature of the services provided under the contract, CA DFW does not utilize subcontractors for the contract effort.

Attempting to introduce competitive subcontracting would increase the administrative costs of the prime contract without reducing the overall price or increasing the quality of the work.

c. Sources sought. In all sources sought, for past procurements and the current procurement, zero (0) responses were received to sources sought postings.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government does not expect to take additional actions to increase competition before any subsequent acquisition of these services. This sole source contract is being sought under the exemption from competition for the purpose