To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
Through: David L. Corliss, Town Manager
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Director of Castle Rock Water
Title
Water Issues Update including Update on Renewal of a Professional Services Agreement with CDM Smith, Inc. for On-Call Water Quality Consulting Services
Body
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this memo is to update Town Council on the renewal of the existing Services Agreement with CDM Smith, Inc. (“CDM Smith”) to provide 2021 On-Call Water Quality Consulting Services. The 2021 scope of work and fee will be up to a maximum of $189,700 and will increase the overall cost of this Agreement across the three annual terms to a maximum amount of $364,700. The 2021 scope of work builds on work previously authorized by the Town Manager and completed in 2019 and 2020.
Castle Rock Water’s vision of being an industry leader among water utilities, and mission of providing the community with exceptional service that protects public health drives its business. With that in mind, providing drinking water of excellent quality is critical to the success of both Castle Rock Water’s mission and vision. The approach is to not just meet State and Federal standards, but to provide water that is better than what is required by those standards at a cost that is competitive with surrounding water providers. Castle Rock Water has participated in several State programs which encourage water providers to go above and beyond basic requirements to distribute the best water possible. As part of these programs, Castle Rock Water has been recognized by the State as a leader in water quality. We were awarded the Gold Tier recognition in the Pursuing Excellence program in 2016 through 2019 and the Commitment award in 2020, all from the Water Quality Control Division of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE). Castle Rock’s annual water quality report is available at http://crgov.com/2803/Water-Quality-Report.
Work in 2021 generally will include providing expertise in water quality consulting emphasizing the new Advanced Treatment process at Plum Creek Water Purification Facility (PCWPF) with respect to process monitoring, assistance with operational practices of the Sedalia reservoir (Castle Rock Reservoir 1), and a raw water blending study. Other scope items include a Water Infrastructure Supply Efficiency (WISE) water blending study at the Ray Waterman Water Treatment Facility; a follow-on of the previous distribution system modeling task; on-going water quality data tracking and management; the development of recommendations for a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS); and the continuation of on-call services as necessary.
The total scope of this Agreement including expenditures in 2019, 2020 and 2021 shall not exceed $364,700 and the work to be completed in 2021 shall not exceed $189,700. According to the terms of the Agreement, individual task orders are issued annually, on an as-needed basis, for services. Work associated with the final renewal year will begin February 2021 and continue through December 2021.
History of Past Town Council, Boards & Commissions, or Other Discussions
On January 27, 2021, the CDM Smith On-Call Water Quality Consulting Services Agreement was presented to Castle Rock Water Commission. The Commission voted 6 to 0 to recommend approval of the 2021 renewal of the Agreement.
Discussion
In 2019, Castle Rock Water, through a competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) process, solicited proposals from three nationally recognized water quality-consulting firms. CDM Smith was awarded the contract, and performed water quality consulting services satisfactorily. Key projects completed in 2019 and 2020 included assistance with public outreach strategies, the development of distribution system modeling diagrams which illustrate seasonal treatment facility influence so different water quality from different plants can be tracked across the system, recommendations for source water monitoring in preparation for advanced treatment at PCWPF, recommendations for advanced treatment process monitoring to ensure any issues are identified early in the process before water is distributed, a holistic treatment goals document identifying actual treatment goals that are better than State and Federal limits to be used in operations to determine when to take action to ensure the goals are met, and an analysis of our current laboratory capabilities and recommendations for the future, to name a few.
The 2021 projects are critical to our success to ensure the best possible water quality for Castle Rock Water customers within the financial resources available to provide service. Several of the 2021 tasks are follow-on tasks which further develop the work that has been accomplished, so far, and some tasks are new to the list of services. Details of a few of the upcoming tasks are discussed below.
1. WISE water blending study - this task will involve the analysis of current water quality data to evaluate potential blending issues between different source waters, to assist with treatment operation strategies at the Ray Waterman Treatment facility.
2. PCWPF raw water blending study - from the water quality database which was constructed in a previous task, a raw water quality modeling study will be conducted to study blending ratios of current and future supplies. Results will assist with the determination of treatment operations.
3. Operating criteria document - using the results of previous tasks, develop a plan for communication with the Plum Creek Water Reclamation Authority (PCWRA) to streamline response actions associated with changes in source water quality.
4. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) - utilizing the information gathered from the previous water quality laboratory review, provide recommendation for the selection of a LIMS to coordinate and manage increasing amounts of data.
5. Reservoir management - as a follow-on of a previous task associated with algae monitoring of the Castle Rock reservoir in Sedalia, CDM Smith will evaluate information necessary to determine acceptable water quality values for algae, and recommend appropriate actions in case of excursions from these parameters.
The RFP allowed for two additional one-year contract renewals in 2020 and 2021. Castle Rock Water staff recommends that CDM Smith continue with water quality consulting services in 2021. The recommendation to continue with CDM Smith is based on their performance of 2019 and 2020 scope items, which prepared CR Water for continued progress in 2021. Delivering high quality drinking water is part of the core mission of Castle Rock Water and the ongoing support provided by CDM Smith is critical to our success in achieving this mission.
Budget Impact
The work that CDM Smith will perform over the course of the year will be paid from the 2021 Regulatory and Water Quality Compliance Division professional services account 210-4263-442.30-70 and 211-4363-443.30-70 not to exceed $189,700. An individual task order for the work in 2021 will be prepared and executed once the agreement renewal is approved.