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Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for River Restoration Services

Posted on April 30, 2008 | Filed Under Dam Removal, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Southeast

Serena McClain, Associate Director of River Renewal
River Renewal, Restoring Rivers

Request for Qualifications (RFQ) for River Restoration Services
Proposals due May 30, 2008

American Rivers seeks qualified vendors to provide services on projects within the eastern U.S. that restore rivers and streams. Our primary interest is in ecosystem-based riverine restoration, mainly using dam removal as a restoration tool. We may also pursue river and floodplain restoration through bypass channel fishways, rock ramp fishways, culvert replacement/retrofits, stream daylighting, natural channel design or other innovative methods to restore the ecological integrity and dynamic functions of rivers and enhance movement of fish, wildlife and other aquatic life.

River restoration services may include, but are not necessarily limited to:

Site reconnaissance/conceptual design
Feasibility studies
Engineering analysis/modeling
Engineering design
Permitting and regulatory coordination
Public education and outreach
Bid document preparation
Construction oversight
Restoration of riparian corridors
Pre- and post-project monitoring

This RFQ will result in Master Service Agreements (MSA) with up to ten (10) vendors or vendor teams. American Rivers will enter into MSAs with the selected vendors for a term of three (3) years. Projects will be allocated to the selected vendors based on a rotation with adjustments made for location, specific skills needed and quality of past work. In some cases, projects will be allocated based upon a Request for Proposals to be solicited from all or a subset of the vendors with MSAs established under this RFQ.

Download Complete Request for Qualifications

Important Dates

April 30, 2008 — RFQ Release

May 9, 2008 — Deadline for submittal of questions on RFQ (5:00pm ET)

May 14, 2008 — Deadline for subscribing to Q&A Digest (5:00pm ET)

May 16, 2008 — Q&A Digest emailed to respondents that have requested a copy. Q&A Digest posted on this website.

May 30, 2008 — Deadline for receipt of proposals to RFQ (5:00pm ET)

July 2, 2008 — Final selection. Begin development of MSAs

Questions?

American Rivers staff will not respond to telephone questions about the RFQ. Questions concerning this RFQ must be received in writing via email by 5:00pm ET on May 9, 2008 to slindloff@americanrivers.org. See complete RFQ for more detail. Questions via email should have the Subject Line: “RFQ Question.�? Respondents wishing to obtain a digest version of all questions and answers should send their email address to slindloff@americanrivers.org (Subject: “RFQ Digest Request�?) by May 14, 2008. American Rivers shall distribute the Q&A Digest via email and post it on this website by May 16, 2008.

Two Outstanding Rivers You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Posted on April 28, 2008 | Filed Under Northeast, River Heritage, Wild and Scenic

David Moryc, Director
River Heritage Campaign, Go Wild!

Last Wednesday Chris O’Shea of the Missisquoi River Basin Association testified before the U.S. House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands (I think we need a rivers and waters committee) on behalf of the Missisquoi and Trout Rivers in Vermont. U.S. Rep. Welch has introduced a bill that asks the National Park Service to study these rivers for Wild and Scenic status. We are hopeful we’ll se this happen this year as a part of our 40×40 Campaign. I hope to paddle and fish these rivers someday but until then I think Chris’ story about them in his testimony below is the next best thing.

“Good morning. On behalf of the deer, moose, ospreys, beavers, brown trout, loons, brown bears, bobcats, beavers, foxes, bald eagles, snapping turtles, fisher cats, porcupines, mink, ravens, muskrats, coyotes, geese, herons, owls, river otters, and the good people of the ten communities that lie along the Missisquoi and Trout Rivers, I thank you for hearing this testimony on why these two rivers are worthy of study by the National Park Service for possible inclusion in the Wild & Scenic program.”

“Where these rivers run there are no shopping malls, no big box stores, no multiplexes, no four-lane highways, no gated communities, no stoplights. What’s there, is open spaces of forests and fields, beautiful four-season open space that stretches from Lake Champlain to the Green Mountains and beyond. The defining factor in all that open space is the Missisquoi River, it’s broad flood plain lending itself to agriculture from the time of the Abenakis to the days of Agrimark. In summer it’s a ribbon of green, in winter a frozen white wonder. If you love to hunt or fish, skate or swim, paddle or pedal, you will love where these rivers run.”

“The Missisquoi, the name comes from the Abenaki term for crooked river, is one of the last watersheds remaining in the United States that is devoted almost entirely to family dairy farming. Even within the boundaries of the villages that the river flows through you will find family farms along its fertile banks. And while many will decry agriculture as a major cause of water pollution, it is the main reason the Missisquoi and Trout Rivers are worth the time and money to preserve them and the way of life family farming offers. Agriculture and clean water can co-exist where the people are willing and the necessary funding is available.”

“There is plenty of pollution, mostly in the form of excessive phosphorous, along these rivers, as our group has documented. Missisquoi Bay, where the river empties into Lake Champlain eighty miles from its headwaters, is impaired and the current object of an over $20 million federal Clean & Clear clean-up.”

“None of the ten villages along these two rivers has more than a thousand people living in it, and most have less than five hundred. Only three have the infra-structure necessary for further economic expansion, and this is another place where the Wild & Scenic program could aid those communities with both guidance and funding.”

“Why, you may ask, seek Wild & Scenic status for a place that is already wild and scenic? Because we want to keep it that way and without the ways and means to hold off the forces of urbanization, the greater Missisquoi Valley will eventually look just like everywhere else. As an old dairy farmer said to me recently: you know, we’re a place that can still pretty much feed it’s own, and I do believe that’s worth something to somebody.”

“Already we are seeing market forces eroding the family farms. Go big or get out is the mantra too often heard. Or go small and organic. The river flows to the sea, the milk to market, and the money to the agri-giants. If by preserving the river we can preserve the families living along it, then we will have made government that is truly of, by, and for the people.

It is these family farms that provide easy access to the river, whether you want to fish, swim, paddle, or ride your bike along the rail trail. Some of the best flatwater paddling in New England can be found on the upper reaches of the Missisquoi and the Trout is a place where a fly-fisherman can have a pool to him or herself on a Saturday morning. Big Falls will make you afraid of the river, Green River Farm will make you want to jump in it.”

“Why include the Trout River in this study? Although the Trout is much smaller, it should be included in the study as well because it is largely a microcosm of the greater Missisquoi, deep pools, shallow runs, open farm meadows, hard and softwood forests. If our studies reveal that the Missisquoi is not suitable for designation, we are quite certain that the Trout will be. And if both make the grade, as any brother and sister should, it’s a good day for the wild life.”

“Another unique factor in this designation is that the Missisquoi flows north into Quebec for fifteen miles and then turns back south into Vermont in the town of Richford. Already our Canadian friends have asked about what kind of possible joint venture this wild & scenic designation sets up between our two countries. In an era of growing fear and loathing along our borders, leave it to a great river to calm troubled waters.”

“As the river changes its flow with each new spring, so too must we change to keep it clean and healthy. We are not fighting change here, only trying to channel it in a direction that benefits the river and the living beings along its banks. It may not happen in my lifetime, but my childrens’ time a glass of clean water will become far more valuable than a barrel of crude oil. Please help us leave our children those healthy waters .”

“Thank you for your time.”

Chris O’Shea
Missisquoi River Basin Association

New York unveils network of kayak and canoe launches

Posted on April 7, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails, Northeast, River Heritage

Jamie Mierau, Director
River Heritage, Blue Trails

Communitie s everywhere are rediscovering their rivers through blue trails and other river recreation. New York City adds its name to the list.

amNew York (NY) March 27: Parks officials hoping to promote public access to one of the city’s least-used recreational zones - its waterways - have created its first formal network of kayak and canoe launches. Dubbed the New York City Water Trail, the 28 small boat ramps are sprinkled along the shorelines of all five boroughs, in places as remote as marshlands within the Idlewild Park Preserve in Queens and as bustling as the six piers along the Hudson River in Manhattan.

Good intentions are no excuse for bad ideas

Posted on April 2, 2008 | Filed Under Hydropower, Northeast, River Renewal, Technology

John Seebach, Director
Hydropower Reform Initiative

About a third of my morning commute is on a great bike trail that runs from the Maryland suburbs into DC. Yesterday morning, I came up behind a guy who was riding slowly without his hands and weaving all over the trail. When I passed him, I saw the problem:

He was talking on his cell phone.

It struck me later that this was a great metaphor for some of the proposals for new energy development that have come across my desk in the past few months. The good news is that a whole lot of people are genuinely concerned about energy use and climate change, and they want to do something about it. Some try to drive less, others try to build power plants that will generate electricity without carbon emissions. The bad news is that good intentions don’t necessarily prevent reckless and selfish behavior.

Take, for example, Community Hydro, a for-profit hydropower consulting firm that focuses on small hydropower development, particularly in Vermont. At first glance, this might sound like a reasonable idea: Vermont has a lot of small dams that no longer really serve a useful purpose. Those dams can generate electricity without significant carbon emissions. What could go wrong?

Plenty. Leaving aside for the moment hydropower’s serious environmental impacts, there’s a reason why many of these sites haven’t been developed before: they won’t make money. It ain’t cheap to build a hydropower project, let alone maintain it for decades. At a larger dam, this is less of a problem: owners can generate more than enough energy - and income - to cover these costs. Many small hydropower dams barely produce enough power to stay afloat. All it takes is one mishap - a failed turbine, flood damage, a utility that wants to renegotiate a power contract, or an unsafe dam that needs repairs - to send a small hydropower project deep into the red.

If - like Community Hydro - you happen to be in the business of consulting with people who want to develop hydropower projects, this presents a problem. With most of the good sites already taken, how can you make bad sites worth developing? Skimping on generating equipment won’t save you any money in the long run, and cutting corners on dam safety is (I hope) a non-starter. Instead, Community Hydro is following in the time-honored tradition of energy developers everywhere (the same tradition, I might add, that got us into this climate mess in the first place): change the rules for protecting the environment so that they don’t apply to your business.

What rules? Simple: for hydropower operators, water is money. Most hydropower dams need to divert some water from the river into a canal or pipe that leads to a powerhouse downstream - often miles downstream - in order to get the most power out of the river. For a river, however, this water is life: if a dam owner takes too much water, the river runs dry. Over the years, state and federal governments have passed a number of environmental laws that balance the need for power production with the need for rivers to have water. When a dam owner receives permission to generate hydropower, it is conditional permission. Because rivers are a public trust resource (i.e. they belong to all of us) dam owners are also required to leave enough water in the river to protect fish, wildlife, and recreational uses like swimming, fishing, and boating.

This is exactly the point of “renewable” energy: we take energy without depleting the resource that provides us with it. It may make sense to add hydropower to some existing dams in Vermont. But if other sites won’t work unless we throw basic environmental standards out the window first, then they shouldn’t be developed.

Earlier this year, Community Hydro lobbied Vermont’s legislature for a bill that would have allowed the owners of small hydropower projects to take more than their fair share of water. Had the law passed (it didn’t, thankfully) many of Vermont’s rivers would have been deprived of their water. It would have been perfectly acceptable for a hydro operator to leave some rivers in a permanent state of severe drought. On other rivers, dam owners would be allowed cut flows to winter low-water levels during the critical spring season just when fish need higher water to spawn and rear their young. That’s hardly “green” energy.

With so many new and innovative renewable energy technologies being developed today, gutting environmental protections to make a 19th-century technology like small hydropower more profitable is both reckless and selfish. Arguing that small hydro should be exempt from environmental standards because it is “environmentally friendly” is like arguing that a particular model of car shouldn’t come equipped with air bags and seat belts because it has a solid crash-test rating. Especially if the person making the argument is trying to sell you the car.

A $1.2 million week

Posted on March 20, 2008 | Filed Under California, Dam Removal, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Northwest, River Renewal

Serena McClain, Associate Director of River Renewal
River Renewal, Restoring Rivers

Did you ever have a really good week and just want to share it with others?

On Tuesday of last week we learned that we were awarded $700,000 to continue our NOAA Rivergrants program in FY09. Since 2001, we’ve provided both financial and technical assistance to more than 100 restoration projects across the country, and have reunited many communities with healthier rivers and streams.

Then, just three days later, we were awarded $500,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s Growing Greener Grant Program to continue our work removing dams and restoring rivers statewide. In close partnership with PA DEP and the PA Fish and Boat Commission, our Free-Flowing Pennsylvania program has assisted in the design and construction of more than 60 dam removals since 2003.

The wonderful thing about having a week this good is that we really will be literally sharing it with others. There are just 11 days left to apply for the latest round of American Rivers Rivergrants funding! Check out our guidelines to figure out if your project might be eligible and download the application without delay!

Politics makes strange bedfellows

Posted on March 11, 2008 | Filed Under Dam Removal, Government Affairs, Northeast, Quotes, River Renewal

Serena McClain, Associate Director of River Renewal
River Renewal, Restoring Rivers

But, you know, it doesn’t make sense to guard a dam against a terrorist attack if it crumbles because no one has repaired it for the last 50 years. And this is my big lesson from Katrina, which is not a FEMA issue, but it is: If you let infrastructure go for 30, 40 or 50 years because you’re spending money on earmarks or other things, then in the end you’re going to have something that is going to cost you a hell of a lot more money, and worse, probably cost you some human lives.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff

Last week Laura Wildman, our resident engineer and Director of River Science, left her post restoring rivers of the Northeast to fly down to D.C. and participate in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) lobby day.

American Rivers hasn’t always been known to jump into bed with ASCE. However, for the past two years, we have been working toward seeing the Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act (S. 2238) become law. The bill, if passed, will provide states with funding to remove or repair high hazard dams.

With extreme weather events only expected to become more common and our nation’s dam infrastructure continuing to age, now is the time to heed the advice of our Secretary for Homeland Security. Let’s arm people not with weapons but with funding that could mean the difference between another Kaloko or a community who is able to restore their river and remove the threat of a deficient dam.

Kay Henry named L.L. Bean Outdoor Hero

Posted on February 25, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails, Northeast, River Heritage

Jamie Mierau, Director
River Heritage, Blue Trails

Kay Henry, a driving force behind the incredible Northern Forest Canoe Trail, is recognized as an L.L. Bean Outdoor Hero. The L.L. Bean Outdoor Hero program was developed to thank those who have dedicated their time to preserving the outdoors. These are people who may not make the front page news, but who change the world around us for the better.

In the late 1990s, Kay had an incredible idea - to create an easily accessible water trail throughout the Northeast. To do so, she began fundraising efforts - first through corporate support from the outdoor industry, then through four years of federal funding to build the trail. In time, she raised more than $1 million to turn her dream into a realty - a stunning 740-mile water trail from Old Forge, New York, across Vermont, Quebec, and New Hampshire, to Fort Kent, Maine.

Kay has been reconnecting communities to their rivers for decades. Not only is she an L.L. Bean Outdoor Hero, she’s a river hero!

Blue trails picking up steam in Connecticut

Posted on February 14, 2008 | Filed Under Blue Trails, Northeast, River Heritage

Jamie Mierau, Director
River Heritage, Blue Trails

Exciting things are happening in Connecticut. Representatives of paddling clubs, watershed groups, outfitters, gear retailers, and political leaders are meeting later this week to more formally organize the Connecticut Water Trails Association. The February 16 meeting in Middlefield is open to the public so go be part of this all-important effort. The group plans to sponsor a Connecticut Water Trails Day on June 14, with organized outings in different parts of the state that day. Stay tuned for more details.

Hartford Courant (CT) - The idea is a comparatively simple one: Identify some of the most scenic and accessible kayak and canoe routes on the state’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters, and recognize them for what they are: water trails, the aquatic equivalent of hiking trails. Then, promote those trails; preserve and protect those trails; help those unfamiliar with a body of water to find public access points on those trails.

Blog Round Up: December 21th - December 28th

Posted on December 28, 2007 | Filed Under Northeast, Weekly Round Up

Chas Offutt, Director of Internet Strategy
Technology & Rivers

It has been a quiet and short week here in the office, much like on the blogosphere. Our own Gary Belan has used the quiet time to catch up on the discussion of storm water. He found a post on the Sustainable Stormwater Management blog so important that he posted on the subject on our blog too.

The river round up for 12-21 to 12-28:

The Maine Owl reports on the money appropriated to restore the Penobscot River.

The Garden Rant looks into rain barrels and wants to know about your experiences with them.

Somewhat off topic for our blog, the Gristmill has a post on the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The point of the post is the incredible amount of pollution that athletes will have to deal with. I was particularly interested in the fact that water is being diverted, because of a drought, for the rowing competition.

It’s not too late for your river!

Posted on November 28, 2007 | Filed Under California, Dam Removal, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, Northwest, River Renewal

Serena McClain, Associate Director of River Renewal
River Renewal, Restoring Rivers

As the deadline approaches (December 3rd) for our stream barrier removal grants, don’t you think it’s time you took our short quiz to see if your project might be eligible* for funding?

Should you apply for a Stream Barrier Removal grant?

*In order to truly determine whether your project is eligible, please call me at (202) 347-7550.

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