Notice of Intent to Sole Source Under the SAT - Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River Resiliency Report Great Lakes Adaptive Management Committee

This is a special notice prepared in accordance with the format in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.2 Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. A solicitation will not be posted. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) intends to award a sole source fixed-price purchase order to University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability (UM-SEAS) for services entitled "Lake Ontario - St. Lawrence River Resiliency Report Great Lakes Adaptive Management Committee". 

The period of performance is 6 months from the date of contract award.

On January 16, 2015, the International Joint Commission (IJC) issued a Directive establishing the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Adaptive Management (GLAM) Committee which reports to the three Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Boards (Superior, Niagara and Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence Boards). The GLAM Committee is to carry out the required monitoring, modelling and ongoing assessment of the regulation plans and address other questions that may arise due to changing conditions, in consultation with the Boards. In the summer of 2019, the IJC requested the GLAM Committee begin planning for an expedited review of Plan 2014 with the goal of further moderating flooding that occurred because of record water supplies to the Lake Ontario-St. Lawrence River system in 2017 and 2019. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) serves on the GLAM committee as technical representatives.

GLAM has now entered the 2nd phase of the expedited review, which will more closely evaluate Plan 2014 and its limits and triggers to determine whether changes should be made. Part of the plan evaluation is to study the resiliency of the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River basin.

However, any firm that believes it can meet this requirement may give written notification to the Contracting Officer within 15 days of publication of this announcement. Supporting evidence must be in sufficient detail to demonstrate the ability to comply with the requirement. Responses received will be evaluated; however, a determination by the Government to compete the proposed procurement based on the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. USACE intends on proceeding with awarding a fixed price contract to UM-SEAS. 

To support the evaluation of Plan 2014, the contractor shall conduct a search of Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River (LOSLR) basin resiliency activities along the New York shoreline (from the mouth of the Niagara River to the St. Lawrence River at the Ontario/Quebec border) to develop a comprehensive list of significant efforts to enhance resilience to fluctuating water levels and flows. The Contractor will create a summary description of each effort, and, with support and guidance from the GLAM Resiliency Steering Committee, develop a catalog of current resilience efforts. This would establish a baseline for the LOSLR system, which can help to facilitate future assessments of resiliency work. In addition, the Contractor would identify examples within water-use themes with high resiliency and active climate resiliency planning, programs, and model actions or practices, to showcase local initiatives through the means of developed case studies. Water use themes may include coastal riparian, commercial navigation, recreational boating/facilities, ecosystems, municipal and industrial water uses, and hydropower or any other use. The contractor shall compile the findings and analysis into a final report and presentation including a parallel effort in the Ontario and Quebec portion of the basin. Final report synthesis shall withhold comparison between the separate governed bodies and not conduct any gap analysis.