BLM-CO-treasure pass ditch expert witness service

Notice of Intent to Award a Sole Source for BLM-CO-TREASURE PASS DITCH EXPERT WITNESS SERVICE

Notice of Intent to Award a Sole Source order for Expert Witness Services. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITVE PROPOSALS.

Services that may be required include any expert witness services that are necessary to support water court approval of a change of water right and a new junior water right. BLM anticipates that expert witness tasks may be requested sporadically, or that significant volumes of work may be requested in short time frames with tight deadlines. The timing and composition of expert witness services requested will largely be driven by water court processes, including deadlines set by water court judges.

Task 1 - Change of Water Right Analysis
- Update previously completed analysis of historic diversions associated with the ditch, with the objective of identifying maximum, minimum, and average diversions on a monthly basis. The contractor will review all available diversion records and interview Colorado Division of Water Resources personnel to obtain the most complete data set possible. The focus of research will be on the period when the water right was used at the originally decreed place of use.
- Determine whether an analysis of exchange potential is necessary to substantiate the ability to exchange the changed water right. If so, complete an analysis of exchange potential for moving water from the Treasure Pass Ditch to Beaver Park Reservoir, from Beaver Park Reservoir to Blanca Wetlands Area, and from Treasure Pass Ditch to Blanca Wetlands Area.
¿ Review typical transit charges assessed by the Division of Water Resources on the Rio Grande, and evaluate whether these charges are appropriate, given BLM¿s proposed exchange-from and exchange-to points.
¿ Recommend appropriate terms and conditions for a change of water right case. To arrive at appropriate terms and conditions, the contractor will:
o Review the results from the analysis procedures described above.
o Review other decreed changes of transmountain water rights in Water Division 3.
o Review the amount of irrigated acreage in the original decree and determine whether irrigated acreage limitations would be appropriate for a change of water right.
- Other professional services that may be needed to support BLM's water right case may include GIS analysis, digitization of historic records and maps, and aerial imagery acquisition and analysis.
Task 2 - Analysis of New Junior Water Right
The contractor will review the results of analysis for the change of water right described above and make recommendations concerning whether any of the analysis or proposed terms and conditions should also apply to an application for a new junior water right.

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 - 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. 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.
-Statutory authority.
41 U.S.C. 1901 - Simplified acquisition procedures
-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 historical diversions and consumptive use associated with 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 Michelle Johnson 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 this process would exceed the timeframes allowed by the water court.