Engineering Consulting Services for the Upper Snake River Basin WaterSMART Basin Study

The Idaho Water Resource Board (IWRB) is requesting qualifications for engineering consulting services to support completion of the Upper Snake River Basin WaterSMART Basin Study in conjunction with the United States Bureau of Reclamation, with Statements of Qualifications due September 17, 2026 at 4:00 p.m. MT. This is a qualifications-based selection (RFQ) with a mandatory two-stage process: written SOQ followed by interviews for shortlisted respondents.

The consultant will serve as project manager and primary point of communication across all parties, performing technical analyses including water supply and demand projections, infrastructure analysis, and climate-change impact assessment. Key deliverables include a Plan of Study, Technical Sufficiency Review Plan, Communication and Outreach Plan, Memorandum of Agreement support, basin study completion with trade-off analyses, performance reports, and a final basin study report. The scope requires demonstrated experience with ESPAM and RiverWare modeling and technical report writing capabilities. Reclamation collaboration experience is an explicit evaluation criterion.

The contract term is five years. Evaluation is structured at 400 points total: 200 from the written SOQ and 200 from the mandatory interview process. Criteria span consultant overview and experience (55 points), team organization with project manager and key member qualifications (60 points), Reclamation collaboration experience (20 points), stakeholder management (15 points), technical analysis and dataset development including ESPAM and RiverWare modeling (20 points), technical report writing and trade-off analysis (15 points), project management and quality assurance procedures (10 points), and project approach (5 points). The top three ranked respondents advance to interviews scheduled for October 12–19, 2026, with selection and negotiations the week of October 26, 2026. Reference checks will be conducted on the top three.

Submittals must include five hard copies and a USB drive with PDF documents not exceeding 25 pages in 11-point font, plus required debarment and responsibility certifications. Questions were due August 24, 2026. An optional informational meeting was held August 19, 2026. The IWRB reserves the right to reject all responses, reissue the RFQ, or terminate if funds become unavailable.