San Luis Demonstration Treatment Plant Operation and Maintenance

The summary for the San Luis Demonstration Treatment Plant Operation and Maintenance grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Bureau of Reclamation, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

San Luis Demonstration Treatment Plant Operation and Maintenance: San Luis Feature Re-Evaluation
In 1960, Public Law No. 86-488 authorized the construction, operation, and maintenance of the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project, including the construction of San Luis Dam, San Luis Canal, Coalinga Canal, San Luis Drain, distribution systems, drains, pumping facilities, and other related works. The San Luis Unit serves 700,000 acres of irrigated agriculture and includes the Westlands, Broadview, Pacheco, and Panoche Water Districts and the southern portion of the San Luis Water District.

Since the closure of the Kesterson Reservoir in the mid-1980s, adequate drainage service has not been available for irrigation waters from agricultural lands served by the San Luis Unit. In 2001, in response to a District Court order (Sumner Peck Ranch v. Reclamation) to promptly provide drainage services to the San Luis Unit (Westlands Water District and the Northerly Districts), Reclamation submitted to the Court a Plan of Action outlining a schedule to complete a reevaluation of the Central Valley Project’s San Luis Unit drainage service alternatives and the associated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

Reclamation released a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the San Luis Drainage Feature Re-evaluation to the public on June 8, 2006. The FEIS evaluated seven action alternatives in addition to the no action alternative for implementing drainage service within the San Luis Unit. The Record of Decision (ROD) for the FEIS was signed March 9, 2007. Reclamation selected the In-Valley Water Needs Land Retirement Alternative as the alternative for implementation of the ROD. The selected alternative fulfills the requirements of a District Court Order and a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that Reclamation has a statutory duty to provide drainage service to the San Luis Unit.

Subsequently, Reclamation prepared the San Luis Drainage Feature Re-Evaluation Feasibility Report (Feasibility Report) to evaluate the feasibility of implementing the preferred alternative.
The FEIS, ROD, and Feasibility Report are hereby incorporated by reference. Drainage service is needed to achieve a long-term, sustainable salt and water balance in the root zone of irrigated lands in the San Luis Unit and adjacent areas. The Federal action to supply drainage services is required by Public Law 86-488 and the Sumner Peck Ranch v. Reclamation Court Order.

The San Luis Demonstration Treatment Plant (Demo-Plant) provides a viable source for reclaimed, clean water from the irrigation drainage water which contains naturally occurring constituents such as selenium and other salts. By operating the Demo-Plant, Panoche Drainage District (PDD) will provide increased opportunity for the public to evaluate other innovative technologies and their compatibility with the Reverse Osmosis (RO) and bio-treatment technologies used in the Demo-Plant.

Westside Regional Drainage Plan
The Demo-plant was designed to enable the implementation of the Westside Regional Drainage Plan (WRDP) by providing additional treatment/disposal of salts from the San Joaquin River Improvement Project (SJRIP). The WRDP was developed by several water agencies to solve problems with agricultural drainwater in central California. It is another critical component to help meet the federal government’s obligation to provide drainage services to lands within the San Luis Unit. The SJRIP was developed as a res-use area to reduce the amount of salt and selenium discharged to the river under the Grassland Bypass Project.

On September 15th, 2015, the U.S. Department of Justice and Westlands Water District signed a settlement agreement that would relieve the United States of financial obligations and legal liability regarding drainage service in Westlands Water District. The purpose of the demonstration treatment facility was changed when future plans to build additional plants were no longer needed. The plant will now serve the purpose of reducing salts and selenium in drainwater within the SJRIP. Negotiations for a settlement between the United States and the Northerly Districts are ongoing at this time.

RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT

The success of this cooperative agreement requires proper operation and maintenance of the Demo-Plant. The scope of work includes five main activities as described below that will be pursued to further the goals of this cooperative agreement.

The following five objectives are critical for success of the Demo-Plant:
1. Operations Staffing
2. Monitoring
3. Demonstration
4. Process Optimization
5. Technology Evaluation

The recipient will need to achieve these objectives to gain a working understanding of impacts of changing influent water quality and overcome difficulties in operations of facility processes, both of which will ensure successful long-term operation, in addition to determining optimal unit operations to be used as a drainage solution by testing emerging technologies.

RECLAMATION INVOLVEMENT

Substantial involvement by Reclamation is anticipated during the performance of activities funded under this cooperative agreement. In support of this Agreement, Reclamation will be responsible for the following:

• Providing assistance in reviewing staffing applications and helping conduct interviews
• Reclamation’s Technical Service Center to review and approve Recipient submittal of staffing plan and key personnel (required 14 days prior to plant operation under the ‘2016 Cooperative Agreement’), including appointed personnel. Staffing appointments must be approved by Reclamation prior to proceeding to monitoring, demonstration, process optimization, and technological evaluation.
• Reclamation technical service center to review and approve Recipient submittal of the operational plan, (required 30 days after plant turnover under the ‘2016 Cooperative Agreement’)
• Reclamation technical service center and GOTR to review and approve all submitted reports
• Provide technical assistance by Reclamation staff, including the technical service center as needed
• Operational intents detailing optimization efforts that will be performed on the Demo-Plant, if any
• Technical assistance of Demo-Plant optimization efforts
• Troubleshooting operational issues
• Assistance in evaluating alternative technologies


SINGLE-SOURCE JUSTIFICATION
Reclamation did not solicit full and open competition for this award based the following criteria:

(4) UNIQUE QUALIFICATIONS


Single Source Justification Description:

Panoche Drainage District (PDD) is uniquely qualified to operate the Demo-Plant because they currently operate and maintain water supply infrastructure on and around the lands adjacent to the Demo-Plant, including holding title to the property the Demo-Plant is located on. They successfully installed and operate the tile drains that are the primary source water to the Demo-Plant and have been extremely successful with the implementation of the Westside Regional Drainage Plan and removing agriculture discharge out of San Joaquin River through SJRIP.
In addition to having an understanding of the drainage issues in the area, PDD has arranged for staff to be present onsite during the construction, design, and initial testing phases of the Demo-Plant. PDD will be the sole beneficiary, that is, Reclamation intends to transfer the Demo-Plant upon completion of the demonstration testing period and operation and maintenance phases to PDD.

Due to the wide range of involvement with the Demo-Plant, and additional operations performed by PDD currently has various staff capable of performing certain duties involved during the demonstration testing period and intends to obtain additional staff as needed for those areas of expertise that PDD does not have on staff during the demonstration testing and operation and maintenance phases of the Demo-Plant.

Given that PDD is an expert in understanding and implementing drainage on the Westside of the Valley, it would be unlikely that other prospective contractors would be able to meet this expectation and would likely expend a considerable amount of time and expense acquiring a similar level of familiarity and specialized experience.


STATUTORY AUTHORITY

San Luis Unit
Public Law 86-488
74 Statue 156,
Section 5.
Enacted June 3, 1960

This financial assistance agreement is entered into under the authorization by the Congress in Public Law 86-488, 74 Statue 156, June 3, 1960, Section 5 of San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project. The following section, provided in full text, authorizes Reclamation to award this financial assistance agreement:

San Luis Unit, Public Law 86-488, Section 5.
Section 5. [Drainage system for San Luis Unit may be used by other parties; contract terms.] – In constructing, operating and maintaining a drainage system for the San Luis unit, the Secretary is authorized to permit the use thereof by other parties under contracts the terms of which are as nearly similar as is practicable to those required by the Federal reclamation laws in the case of irrigation repayment or service contracts and is further authorized to enter to agreements and participate in construction and operation of drainage facilities designed to serve the general area of which the lands to be served by the San Luis unit are a part, to the extent the works authorized in section 1 of the Act to contribute to drainage requirements of said area. The Secretary is also authorized to permit the use of the irrigation facilities of the San Luis unit, including its facilities for supplying pumping energy, under contracts entered into pursuant to section 1 of the Act of February 21, 1911 (36 Stat. 925; 43 U.S.C. 523). (74 Stat. 159)
The activities outlined in this grant are related to Section 5. of the San Luis Act because it will fund an agreement to operate a drainage facility that serves lands within the San Luis Unit service area.