Agency Pollution Control Agency

Contractor Hibbing Community College

SWIFT Contract Number B25873

Project Name Hibbing Community College East Swan River Water Q

Project Number (if applicable) CR2362

Summarize purpose of the contract, including why it was necessary: The proposed East Swan River Water Quality Assessment project will determine the current health of the 97,100-ac (152-mi2) watershed. It will also provide the baseline for future protection strategies to ensure the watershed’s continued value as a public resource. The study area includes tributaries of East Swan River: Little Swan Creek, East Swan Creek, Barber Creek, Dempsey Creek, and O’Rourke Creek. Generally, these areas have not been actively monitored since the late 1970’s and the expectation is that the watershed will begin to experience development pressures from industry and other growth. This sampling project will establish monitoring sites on the tributaries and will compliment other sites throughout the watershed as part of a larger watershed protection strategy. The sites will be monitored by volunteers and paid student interns from Hibbing Community College (HCC) and begin the process of guiding development activities throughout the watershed. The East Swan River sites were selected to compliment a Minnesota Clean Water Partnership grant initiative titled East Swan River Watershed Protection Strategy.

This project will utilize volunteers and college student interns, with oversight provided by Hibbing Community College faculty. Volunteers will be solicited from the watershed area and our recruiting efforts will focus on landowners, community groups, and local high school students. Minnesota Waters will help with volunteer organization, logistics, and advice on how to effectively get a volunteer monitoring program operational. HCC student interns will work closely with volunteers in sampling protocols, water quality sampling, QA/QC, chain of custody, and shipping of samples. HCC faculty will hire student interns, purchase field equipment, coordinate intern/volunteer pairings, communicate with RMB Environmental Labs, ensure timely data entry into STORET, and provide general oversight and supervision during the two year project. In addition, volunteers will act as East Swan River Watershed Ambassadors who will work alongside student interns and HCC faulty to present water quality findings to the public and will actively promote sustainable use of local water resources. This will have the effect of promoting a sense of “ownership” in residents of the watershed. Data will also be shared with the public through the development of East Swan River water quality sampling project web pages on the Hibbing Community College website and through the use of public presentations of project findings.

Chemical parameters to be sampled include E. coli, nitrogen (nitrite + nitrate), nitrogen (total Kjeldahl), phosphorus, turbidity, and total suspended solids. The samples will be submitted to RMB Labs for analysis. In addition, water transparency, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and conductivity will be measured. Twelve sites will be monitored ten times per year for two years during the months of April through October. Biological monitoring for macro-invertebrates will take place at each of the twelve sites, with analysis being performed by Lake Superior Research Institute, UWS. A habitat assessment of the project area will be conducted. Training sessions provided by Minnesota Waters will take place before each monitoring season. Once training has been initiated, student interns, volunteers and project lead will set up practice sampling sessions in the field. This training will ensure QA/QC by the use of field duplicates (10% of samples), the use of established sampling protocols according to MPCA standards, and chain of custody procedures to be used throughout the duration of the project. Oversight of the monitoring process will be performed by HCC, project lead and MPCA field staff. All data will be submitted into STORET.

Project Duration

Start Date Mon, 03/30/2009 - 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: $75205.00

Amendments $0

Contract total $75205.00

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 ron.schwartz@state.mn.us

Evaluate the contractor's timeliness Excellent

Evaluate the contractor's quality Excellent

Evaluate the contractor's cost Excellent

Evaluate the contractor's overall performance Excellent

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 5 - very satisfied