Groundwater Transfer and Injection Project - Oxford, MS

The Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service seeks advisory and consulting services for site selection and cost estimation on the Groundwater Transfer and Injection Project Phase 2 at its National Sedimentation Laboratory in Oxford, Mississippi, with quotations due September 8 and questions due September 4. This is a total small business set-aside; the NAICS code is 541360, Geophysical Surveying and Mapping Services, with a size standard of $28.5 million.

Place of performance is Oxford, Mississippi. The contractor will provide technical expertise in engineering, environmental, hydrogeology, hydrogeophysics, operations, cost, and logistics to support selection of sites for a distributed network of 5–8 extraction wells and 10–15 injection wells combining riverbank filtration and groundwater transfer and injection across 1–2 extraction modules and 2–4 injection modules. Work comprises two parts: Part 1 involves planning and preliminary site selection through stakeholder coordination and groundwater modeling; Part 2 encompasses on-the-ground hydrogeophysical investigations at four candidate sites using towed time domain electromagnetic and electrical resistivity tomography, final site selection, and preparation of a most probable cost estimate with preliminary conceptual design. The base contract period runs September 20, 2026, through September 19, 2027, with two one-year option periods for up to four additional site investigations as needed.

Key personnel must include a Senior Project Manager and Geologist with 15+ years' experience in managed aquifer recharge systems and Class V injection wells, a Senior Hydrogeologist/Engineer with 15+ years' MAR and operational experience, a Geophysicist with hydrogeophysical exploration experience, and a Hydrogeologist with shallow unconsolidated aquifer systems experience. All personnel require professional geologist certification and appropriate geoscience or civil engineering degrees. Evaluation criteria are Technical Approach (10-page limit), Key Personnel Qualifications (five resumes maximum), and Corporate Experience and Past Performance (two-page limit); award goes to the highest rated technical proposal with reasonable pricing, where technical factors are significantly more important than price. Contact david.hildebrand@usda.gov with questions.