WDFW Estuary Habitat MOA (2009) -- BPA Scoping Project 2010-070-00 – FY2014 Funding

Contract Performance Period: September 1, 2014 to August 31, 2015

The federal Action Agencies (AAs) that operate the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) have asked the state of Washington to join in a partnership to expedite habitat restoration efforts for salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River Estuary below Bonneville Dam.  On September 16, 2009 the Washington Governor and Director of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) signed the Estuary Habitat Memorandum of Agreement (Estuary MOA) with the Action Agencies.  The Estuary MOA establishes a nine-year funding arrangement for habitat restoration in the lower Columbia River and tidally influenced tributaries – from Bonneville Dam to the mouth of the Columbia River where it flows into the Pacific Ocean.

This Contract Description is a synopsis of the Washington Estuary Habitat MOA Scoping Project Pisces Statement of Work that describes the service to be performed by WDFW to preliminary scope new project concepts and develop the ones feasible into MOA estuary habitat restoration projects.  Additionally, in coordination and agreement with BPA, the work performed by WDFW under the Project 2010-070-00 contract includes additional feasibility, planning and permitting, alternative analysis and preliminary desgn on projects that have already been Scoped. This contrat, WDFW will continue work on the Buckmire Slough Feasibility. Furthermore, two projects, the Elochoman Culvert Replacement and the Chinook Estuary Restoration contract by the WDFW MOA Estuary Team are scheduled to be constructed on separate contracts during 2014 and this contract will include additional post-construction services, such as AEMR and additional tide gate management for the Chinook Estuary Restoration project.

Under this contract, Scoping reports will be brief, but once agreement is reached between WDFW and the Action Agencies to implement a project, WDFW will advance projects from intial concept to 30% design, initiate permitting and collect additional site-specific project details under the Umbrella Project 2010-070-00. This enhanced Umbrella Project structure should facilitate the development of more project concepts to the Conceptual Design (30%) stage -- without developing new contracts -- and thus result in the implementation of more on-the-ground restoration projects.  In addition, several subcontract has been developed under the Umbrella Project to integrate best available science into the Washington Estuary MOA Programmatic project development approach that was developed in Taurus for the Council's FY 2014 Estuary Geographic Review process and endorsed by the Independent Scientific Review Panel (ISRP).

The work WDFW will perform on the Buckmire and/or Shillapoo project under this contract will be used to support the information needed by BPA and the Corps to make informed joint decisions, in coordination with WDFW, in selecting projects that will move forward to implementation under the WA Estuary MOA. WDFW will follow the BPA MOA Implementation Flowchart 3 Step Process to advance forward projects.

Tasks under this contract includes:

1. Preliminary scoping of any new project concepts from the GAIL list and other emerging projects identified within this one-year contract.  WDFW and the Action Agencies (AAs) will evaluate these project concepts and if warranted, WDFW will advance the project to alternative analysis, evaulate intial design concepts, and permiting/environemental compliance under this umbrella contract.

2. Work with the Action Agencies (BPA and the Corps) to prioritize estuary projects listed in the MOA and subsequent projects brought forward by project developers.

3. Coordinate and work with the Action Agencies (AAs) to decide which potential project concepts will be preliminarily scoped and further developed.

4. WDFW will conduct basic preliminary scoping activities using existing data to develop a scoping report with the basic data and knowledge base to evaluate the project concept with basic AA criteria such as ownership, site elevation range, location, size and fish species present.  As part of this decision making process, O & M and risk management will be discussed between the agencies; including any site-characteristic that could be a “show-stopper”, i.e., factors that would make implementation too costly, technically complex, land acquisition necessary, or politically grid locked.

5. WDFW will coordinate and come to a consensus with the AAs to determine whether a scoped and scored project should move forward into the Corps §536 Program or be possibly funded directly by BPA.  

6. WDFW will write the proposal narrative and Pisces SOW for the individual site-specific contract under the umbrella project.

7. Facilitate and participate in coordination meetings with the Action Agencies on at least a monthly basis (i.e. Weekly coordination calls between WDFW and BPA COTR, the WDFW-facilitated monthly Inter-Agency Coordination meetings, and Science Work Group meeting participation), along with Watershed Coordination.

8. Coordinate site visits with Action Agencies, as needed, to gain a more in-depth understanding of specific MOA habitat restoration project concepts and to discuss permitting issues.

10. Subcontract with the Lower Columbia Fish Recovery Board (LCFRB) to assist WDFW in scoping, developing projects, land ownership and access, and technical review.

11. Subcontract with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for science support in hydrodynamic, inundation and vegetation modeling for the Chinook project.

12. Subcontract with the Washington Department of Ecology (DOE) for flow gage data collection on the Chinook Project, monitoring, analysis, and uploading onto their website for agency and public access

13. Subcontract with PC Trask and Associates (PCTA) for facilitation and coordination on the Buckmire Feasibility Study and Modeling input.