TRANSMITTAL LETTER FOR BOARD MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 1, 2016
COMMITTEE ON PROCUREMENT
Mr. David St. Pierre, Executive Director
Title
Issue purchase order and enter into an agreement with the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation for professional services related to the peer review of the Chicago Area Waterway System Microbial Source Tracking via Metagenomics Study Project, in an amount not to exceed $50,000.00, Account 101-16000-612430, Requisition 1433121
Body
Dear Sir:
Authorization is requested to issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement with the Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF) for the professional services to perform a peer review for the Chicago Area Waterway System (CAWS) Microbial Source Tracking (Microbiome) research project being conducted in partnership with Argonne National Laboratory scientists. This purchase order will expire on December 31, 2019.
The goal of the CAWS Microbiome project peer review is to convene a forum of experts in the field of environmental metagenomics to assess the CAWS Microbiome study in progress, evaluate its interim findings, and verify the merit of the approaches used in the study. The ongoing study is part of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago’s (District) water quality improvement efforts for the reaches of the CAWS that have been designated for primary contact recreation use. The metagenomic source data and tools from this study will relate current and future management of the CAWS to fecal indicator concentrations and the microbial community to its recreational use suitability.
The District has negotiated with WE&RF on the scope of work and the estimated budget agreement for the services required. Peer review is a service that WE&RF provides to its subscribers who undertake research at their facilities and/or within their watershed. WE&RF offers technical assistance to the subscriber for independent project review. WE&RF will convene the metagenomics expert panel from academia, utility and the USEPA, and will perform the following peer review tasks:
Coordinate the review team, web meeting, and Interim First Phase report review in the October-December (2016) timeframe;
Meet with the project leaders in the January-February (2017) timeframe to obtain any additional information and to discuss the work plan, QAP, and the Phase II activity plan of the study;
Prepare a summary of comments including, for example, suggestions and/or comments on the study design and any alternative methods of data analysis that might be considered to link the metagenomic data in a microbial source-tracking framework for the CAWS. The first peer review comment to be submitted in the February-March 2017 timeframe;
Arrange second and third peer review meetings to be tentatively scheduled in the August-October of 2017 and 2019 timeframe to discuss the Phase II and Phase III interim study findings;
Provide peer review interim summary reports in 2017 and 2019; and
Provide a final peer review summary in the form of a case study in 2019.
Inasmuch as WE&RF is in a unique position to offer the aforementioned services, nothing would be gained by advertising for bids (Section 11.4 of the Purchasing Act).
The Multi-Project Labor Agreement is not applicable due to the specialized nature of the services required.
In view of the foregoing, it is recommended that the Director of Procurement and Materials Management be authorized to issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement with WE&RF, in an amount not to exceed $50,000.00.
Funds for the 2016 expenditure, in the amount of $12,913.00, are available in Account 101-16000-612430. The estimated expenditure for 2017 is $22,474.00 and for 2019 is $14,613.00. Funds for the 2017 and 2019 expenditures are contingent on the Board of Commissioners’ approval of the District’s budget for those years.
Requested, Thomas C. Granato, Director of Monitoring and Research, TCG:HZ:GR:MPC:KB:jc
Recommended, Darlene A. LoCascio, Director of Procurement and Materials Management
Respectfully Submitted, Barbara J. McGowan, Chairman Committee on Procurement
Disposition of this agenda item will be documented in the official Regular Board Meeting Minutes of the Board of Commissioners for September 1, 2016