Agency Pollution Control Agency

Contractor Brown County

SWIFT Contract Number B25621

Project Name Brown County Snapshot & Volunteer Lake Monitoring

Project Number (if applicable) CR2445

Summarize purpose of the contract, including why it was necessary: The purpose of the project is to provide the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) with assessment data required for evaluation of the Aquatic Recreation use by utilizing volunteers to sample individual locations throughout Brown County. This will help with the state's goal to assess all the watersheds throughout Minnestoa, while providing water quality and quantity education to citizens of Brown County. By using volunteers to collect the samples required for assessment, it is our belief that those volunteers will begin to take ownership of the water quality in our County and promote BMPs to their neighbors and friends as an important tool to keep the surface waters in Brown County as clean as possible.

Sites that will be assessed include Altermatt Lake and Clear Lake which have County Parks located within part of their shoreland boundary. These two parks are frequented by many people throught the season (April - September). Aside from the lakes, 5 reaches will be monitored as well. At least one volunteer will be responsible to sample each site (lake or reach) over the two year period. If an excess of volunteers is recruited, then a lake or reach could have more than one volunteer and they can either alternate or sample the location together. Volunteers will be assigned sampling sites based on their location (giving a volunteer a site closer to where they live will help promote ownership and provide less drive time for sampling). In the event that a volunteer is unable to collect their sample during the requried timeframe and a replacement volunteer is unavailable, then a staff person from Brown County will collect the sample for that date.

Lake volunteers will sample their sites once every three weeks starting the first week of June and ending in mid-September. This will provide a total of 6 samples per year per site (plus the additional sample required for 10% for quality control/quality assurance). Volunteers with creek/ditch sites (reaches) will sample for nutrients twice per month from June through September, while other data such as DO, pH, temp, etc will be sampled mid May and early-mid October for a total of 10 samples per year per site. E. coli will be sampled at the five reaches in June, July and August twice per month for the 2009 season and then three times per month in the 2010 season druing the same months. (This will give a total of five samples per month for three months over the two year minimum requirement.)

All nutrient and E. coli samples will be taken to Minnesota Valley Testing Laboratories in New Ulm for processing. Temperature, DO, pH, and transparency will be collected onsite and recorded on a log, then provided to the Brown County Water Plan Administrator. The Water Plan Administrator will then be responsible for reporting the data to the MPCA through STORET.

Training for the volunteers will be provided by Minnesota Waters and kits that include thermometers, t-tubes/secchi disks, etc will be handed out to the volunteers at the completetion of their training by a Brown County staff person. A recognition dinner will also be held to review the data collected and thank the volunteers for their time and support in our effort to obtain a realistic view of the water qualtiy in those areas monitored in Brown County.

Project Duration

Start Date Fri, 03/20/2009 - 00:00

Original end date Thu, 06/30/2011 - 00:00

Actual end date Thu, 06/30/2011 - 00:00

Did project finish on time? Yes

Total billable hours utilized (if applicable) {Empty}

Contract Amounts

Original contract: $45515.00

Amendments $0

Contract total $45515.00

Did project finish within budget? Yes

What was the funding source? 100 E710 WY2

Is this a sole source contract? No

If this was a single source contract, explain why the agency determined there was only a single source for the services (if applicable) {Empty}

Evaluator Name Ron Schwartz

Evaluator Email Address ronald.schwartz@state.mn.us

Evaluate the contractor's timeliness Good

Evaluate the contractor's quality Good

Evaluate the contractor's cost Good

Evaluate the contractor's overall performance Good

Would you engage the contractor's services again? Yes

Describe any negative action taken during the duration of this contract (i.e., termination, pursuit of suspension, etc.): {Empty}

Please rate the overall experience with the contractor 4 - satisfied