Colorado Weather Stations Operation and Maintenance

Description

Background: The four states of the Upper Division (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming), through the Upper Colorado River Commission (UCRC), and in cooperation with Reclamation, initiated a study to assess and improve consumptive use estimates from irrigated agricultural lands in the Upper Colorado River Basin. That study, Assessing Agricultural Consumptive Use in the Upper Colorado River Basin (Phase I, December 2013) and Phase II (anticipated 2016), resulted in a recommendation that several weather stations (existing and new) be formally identified for the purpose of providing information for consumptive use estimates from irrigated lands. The data collected from this “Upper Basin Climate Network” (UB Network) will be utilized in ongoing studies associated with assessing consumptive use calculations. These studies are important to the individual states, the UCRC, and water users. The Upper Basin Climate Network includes three (3) new stations that were installed in Utah in accordance with the ASCE-EWRI 2005 protocols. This award will provide for the operation and maintenance of the new stations. RECIPIENT INVOLVEMENT Given the time and resources spent on the Phase I and II studies and the upgraded and newly installed stations, as well as the importance of the UB Network for consumptive use estimates in the Upper Colorado River Basin, the parties want to ensure the stations will continue to be operated and maintained to an agreed level of standards, and that all collected data will be made available to any and all users in a consistent format. This scope of work addresses the operation and maintenance, data quality control and assurance, and servicing of the resulting data for the 10 new climate stations within the state of Colorado in the Colorado River basin. 1. The contractor will operate and maintain the 3 new stations according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standards appropriate for operation and maintenance of this network (ASCE-EWRI 2005). Teleconnections with the home laboratory will allow daily examination of the sensor outputs. When a significant problem is identified, a site visit will be arranged, to correct the issue within seven (7) days. a. The contractor will provide documentation describing their maintenance procedures and logs of past maintenance upon request. 2. The contractor will ensure each station’s sensors are calibrated or checked against standards annually according to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) standards appropriate for calibration (ASCE-EWRI 2005) a. The contractor will provide documentation describing their calibration procedures and logs of past calibration upon request. 3. The contractor will perform regular (daily or every other day) quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) on the collected data from all stations and will serve or host the final processed data via a website that is available to at least the four upper basin states (Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico), Upper Colorado River Commission, and Reclamation. a. The contractor will provide documentation describing their processing procedures and processing codes upon request

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