REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

(RFP)

RFP# 13-03-RB

Issue Date:September 14, 2012

Title: Ground Water Withdrawal Permit Modeling Services

Commodity Code:92685

Issuing Agency:Commonwealth of Virginia

Department of Environmental Quality

Attn: Renee Bishop, Contract Officer

P. O. Box 1105

Richmond, VA 23218

Using Agency And/Or LocationDepartment of Environmental Quality

Where Work Will Be Performed:

Initial Period Of Contract: For one year from date of award. Renewable based on availability of funds.

Sealed Proposals Will Be Received Until 2:00 p.m. on October 25, 2012For Furnishing The Goods/Services Described Herein.

All Inquiries For Information Should Be DirectedTo: Renee Bishop, Contract Officer, Phone: (804) 698-4061 or E-mail: .

IF PROPOSALS ARE MAILED, SEND DIRECTLY TO THE ISSUING AGENCY SHOWN ABOVE. IF PROPOSALS ARE DELIVERED BY COURIER OR HAND DELIVERED, DELIVER TO: 1st Floor Receptionist Desk, Department of Environmental Quality, Attn: Renee Bishop, Contract Officer, 629East Main Street, Richmond, VA, 23219.

In Compliance With This Request For Proposals And To All The Conditions Imposed Therein And Hereby Incorporated By Reference, The Undersigned Offers And Agrees To Furnish The Goods/Services In Accordance With The Attached Signed Proposal Or As Mutually Agreed Upon By Subsequent Negotiation.

Name And Address Of Firm:

______Date: ______

______By: ______

______(Signature In Ink)

______Zip Code:______Name: ______

eVA Vendor ID or DUNS Number: ______(Please Print)

Fax Number: (___) ______Title: ______

E-mail Address: ______Telephone Number: (___)______

MANDATORY PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE: A mandatorypre-proposal conference will be held at 10:00 a.m. on October 2, 2012at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, 629 East Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219. (Reference: Section VII herein). NO ONEWILL BE ADMITTED AFTER 10:10 a.m. If special ADA accommodations are needed, please contact Renee Bishop at 804-698-4061 by September 28, 2012.

Note: This public body does not discriminate against faith-based organizations in accordance with the Code of Virginia, § 2.2-4343.1 or against anofferor because of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other basis prohibited by state law relating to discrimination in employment.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

RFP # 13-03-RB

PAGE

  1. PURPOSE...... 2
  1. BACKGROUND...... 2
  1. STATEMENT OF NEEDS...... 2
  1. PROPOSAL PREPARATION AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS...... 12
  1. EVALUATION AND AWARD CRITERIA...... 14
  1. REPORTING AND DELIVERY INSTRUCTIONS...... 15
  1. PRE-PROPOSAL CONFERENCE...... 15
  1. GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS...... 15
  1. SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS...... 24
  1. METHOD OF PAYMENT...... 28
  1. PRICING SCHEDULE...... 29
  1. ATTACHMENTS...... 29
  1. Offeror Data Sheet
  2. Small Business Subcontracting Plan
  3. State Corporation Commission Form
  4. Ground Water Management Act Regulations (9 VAC 25-610 et seq.)
  5. Ground Water Withdrawal Permitting Procedures Manual (June 1, 2006, as amended)
  6. Memorandum from Terry Wagner, Director, Division of Water Resources, to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality personnel, titled Ground Water Withdrawal Technical Evaluation Criteria (September 8, 2005)
  7. Virginia Coastal Plain Annual Simulation Report for Water Use Year 2005
  8. Technical Evaluation Report Template
  9. Technical Evaluation Report Example for AOI based on two-dimensional solution
  10. Technical Evaluation Report Example for AOI unconfined aquifer
  11. Technical Evaluation Report Example for AOI based on Virginia Coastal Plain Model
  12. Ground Water Management Area Maps
  13. Aquifer Test Data Template
  14. VA-DEQ Aquifer Test Advisory

  1. PURPOSE: The purpose of this Request for Proposals (RFP) is to solicit sealed proposals to establish a contract through competitive negotiation with a single contractor for the purchase of services required to evaluate the impact of proposed ground water withdrawal permits on the ground water resources of the Commonwealth. These evaluations will be conducted using the Virginia Coastal Plain Model (VCPM-RASA) or the Virginia Eastern Shore SEAWAT Model (VESSM) consistent with Ground Water Withdrawal Regulations (9 VAC 25-610 et seq.) and the Ground Water Withdrawal Permit Procedures Manual (June 1, 2006, as amended). Offerors will also prepare the Heywood Virginia Coastal Plain Model (VCPM) to replace the VCPM-RASA and begin using the VCPM in evaluations of groundwater withdrawals. The results of these evaluations will be interpreted by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (VA-DEQ) and used to determine the sustainability of proposed withdrawals. The permit applicant or other members of the regulated community may refute the technical information contained in these reports. Therefore, it is critical that the methods and references utilized by the contractor be well documented and electronic files of supporting work be supplied to VA-DEQ. The resulting report and electronic files may be shared with the applicant and are accessible to the public under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act.
  1. BACKGROUND: VA-DEQ issues permits for ground water withdrawals of 300,000 gallons a month or more in designated Ground Water Management Areas. There are currently two designated areas: the Eastern Shore Ground Water Management Area and the Eastern Virginia Ground Water Management Area.VA-DEQ,in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS),developed regional flow models that are used to determine the area of impact and the drawdown from each regulated withdrawal. The results of this evaluation are outlined in the Technical Evaluation Report.
  1. STATEMENT OF NEEDS: The contractor shall furnish all labor and resources to evaluate, using the appropriate regional model and other analytical tools, proposed water withdrawals to determine their area of impact and whether the predicted drawdown is in compliance with the 80% drawdown criteria and to provideTechnical Evaluation Reports for each evaluation consistent with the Ground Water Withdrawal Permit Procedures Manual (June 1, 2006, as amended).

CONTRACTOR TASKS:

  1. Summarize and evaluate current site information against regional model design andmost recent USGS hydrogeologic framework and current/historical regional water level observations. Facility wells should also be identified on a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) map and labeled by facility designation and VA-DEQ well number. Identify (report and describe) discrepancies between:
  • site information from regional model framework (row and layer of withdrawal

cells, hydrogeologic unit elevations and thicknesses from VCPM-RASA, VCPM or VESSMGIS files) and site logs interpreted by VA-DEQ staff geologist (including aquifer top designations for determination of maximum pump intake).

  • site information from most recent regional USGS reported hydrogeologic framework (The Virginia Coastal Plain Hydrogeologic Framework, USGS Professional Paper 1731, McFarland and Bruce, 2006
  • water levels from regional observation network wells (available from USGS regional simulated [reported use and total permitted (available via annual reports and GIS from VA-DEQ) and critical-surface water levels (GIS from VA-DEQ)], and all available water levels from site wells.
  • hydraulic parameters in regional model (transmissivity, storage, leakance available from VA-DEQ GIS) and facility (or other applicable) aquifer testing (provided by VA-DEQ).

For sites within 5 miles of aquifer salt-water interface, summarize trends in water quality changes, with respect to facility location, referencing available USGS, Ground Water Permit, and facility information.

VA-DEQ staff will complete sections of the technical evaluation report identifying the owner of the facility, the name of the facility, the type of facility and the location of the facility. The report must include the requested annual and monthly limits and a listing of all wells at the facility – production and monitoring, all out of service wells, and any wells abandoned since the last technical evaluation for the facility. Proposed wells must also be listed. The description of each well is to include the facility designation, the VA-DEQ well number, the VA-DEQ Measuring Point Identification(MPID) number (a temporary MPID number for proposed wells), the latitude and longitude (with datum) of the well to the nearest tenth of a second (estimated for proposed wells to the nearest second), the elevation (with datum), the screen intervals, any gravel pack beyond the screened aquifer, and the pump intake for all active production wells. The apportionment of the total withdrawal between wells and aquifers will also be specified (see also Task C).

VA-DEQ will provide GIS datasets/layers (projection UTM Zone 18, datum NAD 27) with regional model information, annual reports of simulations, facility well construction reports (and available test data) and staff hydrogeologist evaluation of logs and other information to determine the hydrogeologic units intersected by site wells.

  1. Summarize and evaluate aquifer test data utilizing curve matching techniques and AqWin32 software. Determine transmissivity, storage coefficient (specific yield if phreatic) and evaluate leakance (for confined aquifers). Provide VA-DEQ with statistics reports for Theis (confined 1935), Hantush and Jacob (leaky, confined 1955) and best fit solution in AqWin32 file format for each set of observations. [For unconfined aquifer use Neuman (unconfined 1972).]

Discuss any methods to correct for Barometric Pressure (BP) or tidal signatures and what the aquifer test data reveals about:

Boundary conditions (can incorporate Cooper-Jacob 1946 straight-line solution)

Leakance

Interference

BP influence

Tidal interference.

Tests provided for analysis will fall into one of two categories:

a. Step-tests (with or without observation well) or Constant Rate Aquifer Test with one pumping and one observation well (minimum pumping phase duration 48-hours)

b. Constant Rate Aquifer Test with one pumping and 2 or more observation

wells

VA-DEQ will provide Excel spreadsheets containing the aquifer test data in the format described by attachment to this document. Aquifer tests conducted specifically to support permit requests under this regulatory program are guided by VA-DEQ Aquifer Test Advisory and documented through a site-specific Aquifer Test Plan (ATP). Copies of any applicable ATPs will also be provided with the data.

All work completed to analyze data relevant to the aquifer test must be described in sufficient detail for any following reviewer to be able to duplicate the analysis. Graphs of datasets (water level per time) should also be included in the report summary. The results of these analyses as they are relevant in assessing the impacts from the withdrawal must be explicitly stated in the report.

  1. Conduct regional model evaluation to identify any new violations of regulatory drawdown threshold. Summarize the results of the modeling and prepare maps of new violations in all affected aquifers. Identify new areas of upconing or intersection with zones of salt-water intrusion.

Using the VCPM-RASA (see USGS Professional Paper 1404-F and USGS Water Resources Investigations Report 98-4085), the Contractor shall determine whether stabilized effects of the proposed withdrawal, in combination with the stabilized effects from all existing lawful withdrawals, will lower water levels in any confined aquifer below the critical surface prescribed by regulation (a point that represents 80% of the distance between the historical pre-pumping water levels in the aquifer and the top of the aquifer in any confined aquifer that the withdrawal impacts). VA-DEQ will provide electronic GIS maps of the critical surface. The same process shall be done using the VCPM(Heywood, 2009) after the Contractor has prepared the model for regulatory use.

The Contractor will use the Virginia Eastern Shore SEAWAT Model (VESSM) to evaluate withdrawals on the Eastern Shore to determine whether stabilized effects of the proposed withdrawal, in combination with the stabilized effects from all existing lawful withdrawals, will result in salt water intrusion (or migration of the salt water toe further inland).

These findings shall be summarized in the Technical Evaluation Report and described by maps for each aquifer depicting the existing critical cell violations (before adding the proposed withdrawal) together with any new violations of the critical surface (after adding the proposed withdrawal) separately identified. The MODFLOW well stress file (simulating the proposed withdrawal) and an electronic GIS file of the model grid (or nodes) containing the critical surface elevations with the “before” and “after” simulated heads (model output) for each aquifer are to be submitted to VA-DEQ.

VA-DEQ will provide facility well information and withdrawal apportionment by well, aquifer, and (for large well fields) limits on groups of wells that withdraw from the same aquifer and model cell.

  1. Determine Area of Impact (AOI) and evaluate compliance with 80% Drawdown Limit (aka ‘Critical Surface’ or regulatory threshold for allowable drawdown).
  1. Single aquifer impacts where regional model simulation indicates drawdown of at or exceeding one foot at two or less model nodes. These evaluations may include well fields and may be from the water table aquifer.
  1. Numerical or analytical simulations (AqWin 32 format or GMS format) (for small-medium withdrawals, multiple WD locations, and/or water table aquifer impacts)
  1. Dimensional transient simulationsmust be used for small to medium withdrawals (AOI cannot be determined using a regional model) with one or more wells or if the two wells are more than a few hundred feet apart and all wells withdraw from the same source aquifer. These types of analyses must be supported by on site aquifer test data and are developed as transient drawdown “stabilized” at 10-year permit term. Any impacts that extend more than 1 mile from the facility must also be evaluated using regional model in order to check for influences to drawdown resulting from hydraulic gradient or impacts to overlying or underlying aquifers (simulation required by Task C).

Develop a GIS contour (or polygon) of the area of the source aquifer predicted to experience one foot or more of drawdown. Map the AOI and include locations of cell violating the critical surface if the AOI contains or intersects any of these model cells for the subject aquifer. These maps are components of the Technical Evaluation Report.

Identify and list any permitted facilities located within the AOI for each aquifer. Provide electronic files of GIS layers to VA-DEQ.

Compliance with 80% drawdown criterion is calculated for the well head for these local impacts. The drawdown at the well is subtracted from the base water level simulated in the applicable total permitted withdrawal simulation. The resulting water level at the well head is compared to the critical surface elevation for the source aquifer at the appropriate cell node. (This evaluation is not required for water table withdrawals as the regulatory drawdown criterion is applicable only to confined aquifers.)

  1. Regional (more than 2 VCPM model nodes experience one foot or more of drawdown) and/or more than one aquifer impacted by proposed withdrawal.

Regional Flow Model(all large Q single or multi-aquifer)

For ALL permit evaluations not located on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, compliance with the 80% drawdown criterion is evaluated using the most recent Total Permitted Simulation for the VCPM-RASA or VCPM (Heywood, 2009) as applicable, as the baseline simulation for evaluating the proposed withdrawal. Estimates for the potential for salt water intrusion on the Eastern Shore of Virginia should be made using the VESSM.

For all large (approximately 30,000 gpd on the Eastern Shore or200,000 gpd in all other areas) or multi-aquifer withdrawals, the regional flow models used for evaluation of regulatory compliance should also be used to predict drawdowns. A summary of the steps for this evaluation follows:

  1. If considering an expanded or reissued permit, set the facility withdrawals to 0 in the most recent total permitted (TP) simulation. Run simulation and post-process for head values for each aquifer in each cell. Save all input/output files in facility subdirectory. This is the base simulation from which to determine impacts. If the withdrawal is proposed, then there would not be an entry in the most recent TP simulation, so that becomes the base file.
  1. Add the proposed withdrawal to the TP simulation described. Be sure to identify requested withdrawal apportionment and manage assignments by well considering aquifer and row/column assignments. Run simulation and post-process for head values. Save files in the facility subdirectory and prepare a GIS file of the “before and after” node values for hydraulic head. Calculate the drawdown (subtract heads determined in this simulation from the base simulation in order to determine drawdown) and add this information to GIS file.

i.When VCPM or VCPM-RASA is utilized, construct a map showing existing cells below the critical surface and any new cells that have dropped below the critical surface as a result of the withdrawal.

ii.When VESSM model is utilized; construct map of fresh, mixed, and salt cell changes or isochlors of before and after chloride concentrations.

  1. Contour drawdown (positive number) – using GIS raster to contours set at spline 20 nearest neighbors – then select the 1 foot drawdown contour and convert to a polygon. This is the AOI. In some areas the predicted drawdown exceeds one foot at the modeled boundary for that aquifer. In those cases, the modeled boundary defines the limit of the AOI.
  1. Use the contours to produce drawdown and AOI maps (one for each aquifer impacted) using GIS. Include locations of cell violating the critical surface if the AOI contains or intersects any of these model cells for the subject aquifer. These maps are components of the Technical Evaluation Report and the electronic GIS files are to be submitted to VA-DEQ with the report.
  1. Identify and list any permitted facilities located within the AOI for each aquifer.
  1. Provide electronic files of GIS layers to VA-DEQ.

Methods used for determination of the AOI and assessment of compliance with the 80% drawdown criterion must also be sufficiently presented in the report so a reviewer could reproduce the analysis. Maps illustrating the Area of Impact or “AOI” (one-foot drawdown contour) for each aquifer are a key element of the report and become a part of the permit through the mitigation plan. These maps should show the AOI as a red outline overlaying an appropriate scale USGS topographic map or, if regional, a coastal plain counties map. The maps should identify the modeler who completed the analysis, the method used for the determination and the pumping rate and apportionment simulated. Facility wells should also be identified on a GIS map by facility designation and VA-DEQ well number (also required in Task A). Electronic copies of GIS files supporting the evaluation are to be submitted to VA-DEQ with the report.