A.02.13 JA - Georgetown Reservoir Basin No. 2 Dredging - 2020.pdf

Control Number: NAB-20-037

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

I. CONTRACTING ACTIVITY: Department of the Army, Baltimore District, Corps of Engineers, 2 Hopkins Plaza, Baltimore, Maryland 21201.

II. NATURE AND/OR DESCRIPTION OF ACTION: This action is for a new contract that will provide for the urgent dredging and cleaning of the Georgetown Reservoir Basin No. 2 to address an impending taste and odor issue in the nation’s capital drinking water supply. This work has public health issues associated with it, so time is of the essence. The estimated cost of this acquisition is $542,069.45. This will be awarded as a Firm Fixed Price Construction Contract and funds are currently available for this action. The Washington Aqueduct funding source is 966094 Civil, no year, specifically 999883 USACE WAD. The Period of Performance for this contract will be 120 days from date of award.

III. DESCRIPTION OF SUPPLIES OR SERVICES REQUIRED MEETING THE AGENCY’S

NEEDS: The Dalecarlia Reservoir is the source for all water that flows to the McMillan Water Treatment Plant (WTP). As part of the treatment process, water leaving the Dalecarlia Reservoir is treated with alum and primary sedimentation occurs in Basins no. 1 and no. 2 at the Georgetown Reservoir. Water leaving the Georgetown Reservoir then flows approximately four miles across the City through what is known as the City Tunnel to the McMillan WTP for treatment and distribution to the public.

At the Georgetown Reservoir, alum residuals are continuously deposited and removed from Basin no. 1 and Basin no. 2 via a dredging operation involving two remote controlled dredges, one in each basin.

However, these dredges are incapable of removing accumulated residuals from all sections of Basin 2.

The dredges cannot reach settled residuals deeper than 18’ below the water surface while the basin depth in some locations reaches 29’ below the water surface. Additionally, the basins are irregularly shaped with sloping sides. The existing dredges were designed to remove accumulated residuals from rectangular basins. As a result, there are areas on the sloping sides which cannot be reached by the existing dredges. Hence, not all the deposited residuals can be removed from that basin. The residuals in unreachable areas have become anaerobic and begun to release taste and odor forming compounds (i.e.

MIB and geosmin). The concentration of these compounds in the water will continue to gradually increase to the point where they become detectable by human senses, unless the situation is mitigated by dredging to remove the residuals that are forming the taste and odor causing compounds. Hence, this urgent contract is needed as soon as possible to remove the accumulated residuals that are beyond the reach of our in-house dredges before this situation leads to customer complaints and unwanted media attention.

Earlier this year, recognizing that taste and order could become a problem this summer, the Washington Aqueduct (WA) rented 2,6,900 gallons per minute, pumps to drain (i.e. decant) the clear water above the sediment from basin no. 2 and drained it into basin no. 1. During the three week decanting operation, our internal quality assurance sampling of the finished water leaving the McMillan WTP showed that there was a huge spike in the odor forming compounds detected. Fortunately, their concentration did not reach the levels which prompt complaints by the general public. Basin no. 2 was taken out of service and clear water decanted.This past winter, Washington Aqueduct (WA) engaged the services of the USACE Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) to have them develop a plan to clean the basin.

ERDC were in the process of making plans to mobilize an onsite dewatering operation that would mechanically dewater the remaining residuals and completely clean the basin within six weeks.

However, with the emergence of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic travel was, and still is, restricted throughout the country for USACE employees. ERDC is based out of Mississippi and is not able to continue attempts to resolve this matter, furthermore this need has become urgent and the efforts by ERDC have not produced any viable options that will meet the needs of the Washington Aqueduct.

Therefore, WA has an urgent need to implement an alternate residual removal process that will start the Basin no. 2 dredging task immediately.

IV. AUTHORITY CITED: 10 U.S.C.2304(c)(2), as implemented by FAR 6.302-2 (2) Unusual and Compelling Urgency.

V. DEMONSTRATE THAT THE NATURE OF THE ACQUISITION REQUIRES USE OF THE

AUTHORITY CITED:

Establishing a traditional design‐build project for these construction services can take as long as six to eight months to get awarded. Issuing an A-E contract and then a separate construction services contract after bid documents are received from the A-E also takes time, even if an Invitation for Bid (IFB) is used. Due to the urgency of this project during the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be in the best interest of the Government to procure this project using a streamlined single contract for the decreased procurement acquisition lead (PALT) time. Fortunately, the dredging of the Georgetown Reservoir Basin No. 2 was been previously performed before, in the fall of 2016. The work was done by a large business (i.e. Metropolitan Environmental Services, Inc.) working under an 8a (i.e. MZM Construction Company, Inc.) Metropolitan Environmental Services (www.metenviro.com). They specialize in dredging, dewatering, excavation and industrial cleaning and having performed this work before, they are ideally suited to the task and familiar with the need and conditions under which this project needs to be performed. They did an outstanding job the last time they performed this task and WA is confident this performance will be repeated. Therefore awarding a contract to this large business under these circumstances would be in the best interest of the Government.

Georgetown Reservoir Basin no. 2 is physically twice the size of Basin no. 1 and as a result of the decanting operation, WA has confirmed that there is a large quantity of residual sediment in Basin no. 2 which must be removed. As a result of the current quantity of residuals, the effectiveness of Basin no. 2 for sedimentation and particle removal would be reduced if it were in service. Therefore, until Basin No. 2 can be dredged and the residuals removed, the Washington Aqueduct has lost a major production basin. This could adversely affect its mission as we enter the summer months, which is the high water demand season and typically requires both the Dalecarlia WTP and the McMillan WTP to be at optimum capacity and performance. Also, while Basin No. 2 is out of service, if a contamination event were to occur in Basin no. 1. WA would be left with no option but to shut down the McMillan WTP.

This could place the WA mission in jeopardy depending on the water demand at the time of this contamination event. Finally, there is also some operational and management concern that when water demand increases this summer, a larger throughput would be needed to flow through the smaller Basin

no. 1 in order to keep up with consumer demand. This could lead to less time for particle sedimentation to occur in Basin no. 1. As a result, heavier than normal sediment could flow through Basin no. 1 to Basin no. 3 and on to the McMillan Reservoir which would cause a significant increase in cost due to the need to dredge these additional areas. These are two areas of our facilities that are not setup for, nor typically are they ever dredged.

VI. DESCRIPTION OF EFFORTS MADE TO ENSURE THAT OFFERS ARE SOLICITED FROM

AS MANY POTENTIAL SOURCES AS DEEMED PRACTICABLE: Due to the urgent nature of this one time service, competition will not be solicited in accordance with FAR 6.302-2 (2) .

Market research would show that there are various dredging contractors who are capable of performing this requirement. This work has public health issues associated with it, so time is of the essence.

Metropolitan Environmental Services is a contractor that is available, has worked at this location recently, and has the manpower and equipment to mobilize immediately. Hence, they are a logical choice for a sole source option. This specific contractor has worked well with the Government and is willing to support the Washington Aqueduct with this urgent requirement. Due to the urgent nature of this requirement, it was determined that any delay in award could potentially have adverse impacts to the Washington Aqueduct mission. Should this requirement be needed again under non‐urgent circumstances, the contracting office will conduct market research and encourage competition at that time. This project will not be synopsized, as it meets the exception detailed in FAR 5.202(a)(2), unusual and compelling urgency, as the Government may be seriously injured if the agency complies with the time periods specified.

VII. DETERMINATION BY THE CONTRACTING OFFICER THAT THE ANTICIPATED COST

TO THE GOVERNMENT FOR THE PROPOSED ACQUISITION WILL BE FAIR AND

REASONABLE: Based on the information above, it is hereby determined that this justification for sole sourcing of the dredging of Georgetown Basin No. 2 to Metropolitan Environmental Services is essential to the Government's requirements. As previously stated, identical requirements of work were performed in 2016, during which time the Washington Aqueduct negotiated a fair and reasonable price for the removal of sediment from Basin no. 2 . Therefore, the anticipated cost to WA has been estimated based on a $/CY cost that was established for the work performed during the previous contract. It is anticipated that Metropolitan Environmental Services will provide a price in line with their previous price and that their price will not include extra familiarization, development and warranty costs and therefore will be Fair and Reasonable. Furthermore price reasonableness will be determined in accordance with FAR 15.404-1.

VIII. DESCRIPTION OF MARKET RESEARCH CONDUCTED AND THE RESULTS OR A

STATEMENT OF THE REASONS THAT A MARKET SURVEY WAS NOT CONDUCTED: The delays caused by the adverse impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ERDCs operations have had an extremely negative impact on the Washington Aqueduct’s ability to be able to use this critical infrastructure. The urgent removal of these residuals from Basin no. 2 is of utmost importance and needs to be expedited using all legal and appropriate means at our disposal as best as possible. This action meets the requirements of FAR 5.202(a)(2). No additional Market Research was conducted.

IX. A LISTING OF THE SOURCES, IF ANY, THAT EXPRESSED, IN WRITING, AN INTEREST

IN THE PROUCREMENT: Metropolitan Environmental Services was contacted because they have previously performed this work before and have the technical expertise to quickly deploy manpower and equipment to get the project completed in a timely manner. Metropolitan Environmental Services is located at 5055 Nike Drive, Hilliard, OH 43026 and is large business with Cage Code: 06GE3 under

NAICS 562910.

X. A STATEMENT OF THE ACTIONS, IF ANY, THE AGENCY MAY TAKE TO REMOVE OR

OVERCOME ANY BARRIERS TO COMPETITION BEFORE ANY SUSEQUENT ACQUISITION

FOR THE SUPPLIES OR SERVICES REQUIRED: Additional planning will take place to prevent the future build-up of the residuals to such a level that requires urgent action. The Washington Aqueduct currently is seeking approval from their customer board of their Capital Plan in SEP 2020. One of these projects will be a Dredging Improvement Project scheduled for FY21-23 that will address the removal of sediments in the future.

XI. TECHNICAL AND REQUIREMENTS CERTIFICATION: I certify that the supporting data under my cognizance which are included in the justification are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Title: Chief, Planning and Engineering Branch Signature and Date

XII. FAIR AND REASONABLE COST DETERMINATION: I hereby determine that the anticipated cost or price to the Government for this contract action will be fair and reasonable. Provide the basis for this determination (e.g., describe techniques to be used to determine fair and reasonable price, such as cost analysis, price analysis, audit, should cost, independent Government estimate, etc.). As part of this basis, indicate whether certified cost and pricing data will be required or if one of the exceptions in FAR

15.403 will apply.

Title: Contracting Officer Signature and Date

XIII. CONTRACTING OFFICER’ S CERTIFICATION: I certify that this document is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief and that the cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable

Title: Contracting Officer Signature and Date