11.12
DUDEK news
NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
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INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
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Native Plant Nursery Aids
Restoration Projects
udek and its native habitat contracting firm, Habitat Restoration
Sciences Inc. (HRS), have started a native plant nursery and native
seed propagation facility in Carlsbad, CA to help clients’ restoration
projects be more successful and cost-effective.
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Andy Thomson, a senior Dudek restoration
ecologist and nursery co-founder, said the facility
provides four advantages for habitat restoration
projects.
Nurturing locally-sourced plant material.
Healthy and suitable natives contribute significantly
to sustainable, long-term restoration. The nursery
grows natives that are endemic and locally appropriate for HRS restoration sites,
requiring less maintenance to
thrive and minimizing re-plantings.
In short, they adapt better to local
conditions.
Tailoring diverse plant
palettes for specific sites. A
plant palette containing all the core
species appropriate for a specific
site increases diversity, improves
the habitat being restored, and
contributes to a more successful
project. “Our nursery allows us to
tailor each plant palette to each
project’s specific site conditions,”
Thomson said. “Conversely, commercial nursery inventories are often limited,
requiring species substitutions and/or omissions at
key locations which often jeopardizes a project’s
optimization and success.”
Selecting pots for successful propagation. Natives need to be planted in appropriatelysized pots to develop a strong root system and
thrive when planted at the site. Deep-rooted
species, for example, need a deeper pot size,
whereas, commercial nurseries frequently use one
standard pot size. “We diligently vary the size of
pots to conform to the growth habits of each
species,” Thomson said, “again helping ensure the
health of each plant and the success of habitat
establishment.”
Leveraging salvaged plants/seeds. The
nursery leverages plant species salvaged from sites
targeted for restoration in two ways:
■ Plants and/or seeds salvaged from the restoration site are grown at the nursery to increase their
quantity prior to replanting at the restoration site,
which is cost-effective for our clients.
■ If it is prohibited to destroy rare or protected
Restoration ecologists Matt Major (left) and
Andy Thomson show how potting accommodates different root systems of native species
to promote healthy growth.
plant species when clearing a restoration site, the
nursery’s controlled environment allows the storing
and propagating of salvaged plants, again saving
time and project costs.
As an added community benefit, the nursery’s
unused plots have been used to grow produce,
resulting in 2,350 pounds of organic vegetables
donated in 2012 to Fresh Foods for Families, a
local charity.
For more information, contact Andy Thomson at
[email protected] or 760.479.4282.
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REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
New Sampling
Requirement For
Water Quality
Permits
Water quality permits in California
for projects impacting wetlands,
“blue-line” streams, and other jurisdictional water bodies are starting to
require sampling for “water bugs”
known as benthic macroinvertebrates (BMI).
BMI live on or in the substrate
under bodies of water. They respond
quickly to changes in water quality
and nutrient input and are regarded
as an appropriate measure of the biological suitability of water bodies.
California’s Regional Water Quality
Control Boards (RWQCBs) are
adding BMI sampling requirements to
new Section 401 water quality certifications and Section 402 point-source
discharge permits. It is anticipated
that BMI sampling may also be more
widely incorporated into NDPES permit conditions for water/wastewater
agencies in California within the next
two years, as has occurred in Florida,
Minnesota, Washington and Nebraska.
BMI sampling requirements in
California often specify the use of the
Surface Water Ambient Monitoring
Program (SWAMP) protocol for
quantifying, identifying and determining the health of BMI communities.
The California Department of Fish
and Game (CDFG) developed the
protocol, and intends for data to be
used as a universal indicator of a
water body’s overall environmental
and biological health. This specific
protocol is designed for wade-able
perennial streams. However, CDFG is
currently developing sampling protocols applicable to various other
aquatic resource types.
Experience and careful planning is
required to ensure successful implementation of BMI sampling based on
a project site’s spatial constraints,
available stream flow, land access and
project schedule.
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11.12
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Water Quality
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Christopher Oesch, a Dudek
senior habitat restoration biologist, offers the following considerations for implementing the new
BMI sampling requirements:
■ Field sampling can be done
only in the spring and summer
during the regional sampling
“Indexing Period,” and must be
done by personnel certified for
the protocol by CDFG. For proj-
For projects in
Southern California
where streams often
do not flow in the
summer, the applicant
must negotiate the
terms of specific BMI
permit criteria to
reflect the feasibility
of sampling.
ects in Southern California where
streams often do not flow in the
summer, the applicant must negotiate the terms of specific BMI
permit criteria to reflect the feasibility of sampling.
■ Given the regionally overlapping Indexing Periods throughout
California, completion of lab analysis can take 6 months or longer
depending on the volume of samples submitted and the backlog at
the lab.
■ Evaluating and documenting
any pre-existing toxic conditions
at a project site is vital to ensure
the permit does not assign
responsibility to the applicant for
mitigating existing conditions not
related to their project.
“CDFG is currently establishing
regional baselines for healthy
stream communities throughout
the state,” Oesch said. “The
c o n t i n u e d o n p a ge 4 > >
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Securing Grant Funding for a
Wastewater Plant Upgrade
Through Fast-Tracked Design
and Construction
ity officials of Guadalupe, CA recently completed the successful upgraded of its
wastewater treatment plant, securing state grant funding for the project by adhering to a tight completion schedule and using innovative procurement methods.
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Dudek engineers assisted the
city by designing the major plant
upgrade, administering the $4.5
million Proposition 50 grant, and
assisting during construction. The
design upgrades brought the 0.96
million gallons per day (mgd) into
compliance with its existing state
Waste Discharge Requirements.
The plans converted a failing pond
treatment system into a new
extended aeration biological
process with provisions for nitrogen removal. Other improvements
included retrofit of the headworks
with a new influent bar screen,
sludge dewatering facilities, and a
new emergency standby generator.
PROJECT FAST-TRACKING
Complicating the project delivery
was the shortened design and construction schedule. The project had
been placed on hold in late 2010
pending approval by the state of
the final project components. In
May 2011, the state approved the
project scope but unexpectedly
denied the city's request to extend
the grant deadline. At the risk of
forfeiting the critical grant funds, the
project needed to be fast-tracked,
progressing from 30% design plans
to plant construction and start-up
in less than 12 months.
To meet this schedule, Dudek
and the city developed a “project
implementation plan” allowing final
design and equipment procurement to proceed in parallel, saving
at least three months. Dudek engineers solicited competitive proposals for pre-procurement of major,
long lead-time equipment items
and selected, approved, and prenegotiated firm-guaranteed prices
with fixed delivery schedules prior
to completion of final design.
Dudek also shortened the normal design schedule, producing the
bid package in three months and
incorporating fast-track conditions
to facilitate an eight-month construction period. Customized specifications included interim milestones with liquidated damages to
ensure progress while allowing the
general contractor 24/7 access to
the site to meet the defined schedules. The successful low bidder,
Spiess Construction, worked 10hour days, six days a week through
much of the construction period to
NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
meet the grant deadline.
Dudek’s design team and the
city’s construction management
team, Canon Associates, were in
constant communication throughout the construction phase and
provided priority attention to contractor requests for information,
submittals and the inevitable field
construction changes.
CITY HAD ONLY ONE SHOT
TO BID – ACCURATE COST
ESTIMATES WERE ESSENTIAL
The impending grant funding deadline meant the city had one chance
to successfully complete a public
bid. If an award could not be made
for any reason, the time lost would
have jeopardized the funding and
effectively killed the project.
Therefore, accurate estimates and
cost controls were crucial to moving forward with bidding.
To ensure estimated costs were
accurate, Dudek engineers:
■ Carefully reviewed the construction cost estimates, verified
quantity take-offs, consulted with specialty contractors, and continuously
refined their estimating methods.
■ Created a cost-estimate database at the beginning of the project that was continuously updated
throughout the project, allowing
careful evaluation of the impacts of
each design decision.
■ Creating a bid package that
segregated distinct project components into line items and bid alternatives while clearly defining
options for award of some or all of
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DUDEK news
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
the project components. This
organization and bid format maximized flexibility in awarding project
components to match available
project funds.
When the project bids were
open, the engineer’s estimate was
the median of the lowest 8 bids, all
of which were within 10%.
Furthermore, there was only a
$20,000 difference between low and
second low bids, reflecting consisten-
Assessing Cumulative
Development Impacts on
Fire Services
A
recent focus in San Diego
County on assessing fire
services based on the cumulative
impacts of proposed large developments may start to be seen
elsewhere in California.
development of large solar
farms in san diego’s rural eastern
area prompted resource agencies
to ask for more comprehensive fire
service assessments, said michael
huff, dudek’s fire protection planning practice manager and author
of two cumulative impact studies.
while renewable energy developments sparked the interest,
resource agencies want to understand how large development of
any type cumulatively will impact
fire services, huff said.
“local agencies recognize fire
services are getting stretched in
rural areas with different land use
applications, but the studies also
can indicate that the existing services are under-utilized and can
absorb the additional demands.”
huff said renewable energy
development has introduced new
factors into these assessments.
“we now consider whether
aerial fire retardant drops will
damage turbines or panels, and
what level of training and special
project features fire fighters need
to work in and around energized
wind and solar facilities,” huff said.
huff’s studies assessed cumulative impacts in more depth than
traditional project eIrs. while no
regulations exist to require these
studies in san diego county, he
said fire agencies wanted to get
ahead of the curve. the developer-funded studies benefit both
local agencies and the renewable
developers by:
■ producing an excellent understanding of whether a local fire
agency has staff, resources and
training to handle the project,
■ providing insight on how the
developer can guide fire mitigation
funds for most effective use, and
■ strengthening the eIr and
accompanying cumulative analysis.
huff said there are three commonly used baselines for “standards
of cover” for fire protection planning: insurance service offices
(Isos) whose findings impact premiums; the National fire protection
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REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
cy in the plans and specifications.
The project was completed on
time and was successfully started
up in May 2012, bringing the facility
into compliance with its Waste
Discharge Permit.
For more information on the project’s engineering contact Tom Falk at
[email protected] or 760-479-4149
and for information on the grant
administration contact Jane Gray at
[email protected] or 805-963-0651.
association (Nfpa) for response
times and effective fighting force
deployment; and the county general
plan for acceptable travel times
based on land use type.
huff said the large development,
cumulative studies assessment
focuses on the following areas
■ fire risk in the area,
■ particular ignition risks from
the type development (solar, wind,
residential, commercial),
■ unique challenges for protecting and responding to the
facility (response times to a relatively non-combustible solar site
can be longer than to a residential
community), and
■ the fire agency’s resources
and capabilities (station location,
staffing, travel time; ‘weight of
response’ in terms of number of
engines and fire fighters needed).
“we measure and assess all the
elements to define what level of
service best fits the type of proposed development,” he said.
“the results can be very useful to
fire agencies. as an example, a fire
station with only wildlands staff
and equipment in the proximity of
a residential and commercial
development project would not
be well-suited to response to significant structural fire.”
For more information, contact
Michael Huff at [email protected]
or at 949-450-2525.
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std
u . s . p os tag e
605 thIrd street
eNcINItas, calIforNIa 92024
p a I d
RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
saN dIego, ca
permIt No. 960
saN dIego couNty–maIN offIce
800-450-1818
oraNge couNty
949-450-2525
ceNtral coast
805-963-0651
INlaNd empIre
951-300-2100
coachella Valley
760-341-6660
los aNgeles
661-705-3399
sacrameNto
916-443-8335
auburN
530-885-8232
habItat restoratIoN scIeNces (hrs)
760-479-4210
www.dudek.com
[email protected]
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11.12
Inside This Issue
> Native Plants
Nursery Aids
Restoration Project
> New Sampling
Requirement for
Water Quality
Permits
> Securing Grant
Funding for a
Wastewater Plant
Upgrade
> Assessing
Cumulative
Development
Impacts on Fire
Services
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NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Water Quality
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Northern Sierras and North
Coast have a large sample size of
reference streams to establish
baseline conditions and thresholds. The Central Valley and
Southern California, however, have
very few ‘healthy streams,’ due to
agriculture, urban development
and drier climate. This drastically
smaller sample size should result in
the adoption of less comprehensive sampling standards for these
regions. However, if Southern
California applicants do not carefully document any adverse preexisting conditions for each site,
and the regional standards are
relied upon, the applicant will likely
be held by their permit to criteria
not reflective of those adverse,
pre-existing conditions.”
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DUDEK news
INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
Oesch offered the following
planning suggestions:
■ For project scheduling,
attempt to get permits issued in
the winter or spring to utilize the
soonest upcoming Index Period.
■ While negotiating permit
conditions, assess the project site
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REGULATORY COMPLIANCE
and sampling-related environmental work for efficiency. The
SWAMP protocol is usually in
addition to other water quality
monitoring work required in the
permit.
■ Expect additional time and
cost related to the BMI sampling
While negotiating permit conditions, assess the
project site for technical issues (e.g., no stream
flow in summer for sampling, spatial constraints,
etc.) that render sampling infeasible, and develop
a permit negotiation strategy.
for technical issues (e.g., no
stream flow in summer for sampling, spatial constraints, etc.) that
render sampling infeasible, and
develop a permit negotiation
strategy.
■ Bundle all the water-quality
requirements. Field sampling and
laboratory sample
processing/analysis are extremely
detailed and lengthy.
For more information, contact
Christopher Oesch at 760.479.4268
or [email protected].