TRANSMITTAL LETTER FOR BOARD MEETING OF JULY 6, 2017
COMMITTEE ON PROCUREMENT
Mr. David St. Pierre, Executive Director
Title
Issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement with the United States Department of the Interior United States Geological Survey Illinois Water Science Center to install, operate, maintain, and report data from a real-time continuous water quality monitoring station in the Des Plaines River, in an amount not to exceed $355,280.00, Account 201-50000-612400, Requisition 1466106
Body
Dear Sir:
Authorization is requested to issue a purchase order and enter into an agreement with the United States Department of the Interior United States Geological Survey (USGS) Illinois Water Science Center in Urbana, Illinois, to install, operate, maintain, and report data from a real-time continuous water quality monitoring station (Joliet Superstation) in the Des Plaines River near Joliet, Illinois. This project will be ongoing and is supervised by the Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Section of the Monitoring and Research Department. This purchase order will expire on September 30, 2021.
The purpose of the Joliet Superstation is to measure temperature, specific conductance, pH, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll, turbidity, nitrate plus nitrite nitrogen, and dissolved orthophosphate in the Des Plaines River, in accordance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit requirements for the Terrence J. O’Brien, Calumet, and Stickney Water Reclamation Plants.
This data will also assist the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (District) in evaluating and planning nutrient reduction strategies and allow the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to meet objectives of the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, which is to document and monitor relative contributions of nutrients to the Illinois River. Under this Joint Funding Agreement, the USGS will install, operate, and maintain water quality sensors and analyzers, data loggers, and near real-time transmission of data. The USGS will also develop a total phosphorus and suspended sediment surrogate modeling report after approximately one year of monitoring, and provide annual summary letters to the District.
The USGS, the sole-service provider for the Joliet Superstation work, has submitted pricing for the services required. Inasmuch as the USGS is the only source of supply for the services required, nothing would be gained by advertising for bids (Section 11.4 of the Purchasing Act).
The USGS is a non-profit, governmental agency and is therefore not required to register with the State of Illinois.
The Multi-Project Labor Agreement is not applicable due 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 the USGS, in an amount not to exceed $355,280.00.
Funds for the 2017 expenditure in the amount of $92,000.00, are available in Account 201-50000-612400. The estimated expenditures for 2018 is $64,280.00, 2019 is $68,500.00, 2020 is $65,000.00, and 2021 is $65,500.00. Funds for the 2018-2021 expenditures are contingent on the Board of Commissioners’ approval of the District’s budget for those years.
Requested, Edward W. Podczerwinski, Acting Director of Monitoring and Research, EWP:AC:JW:KB:kq/ae
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 July 6, 2017