Selecting a Stormwater Consultant
What do municipal programs look for?
In Alameda County, CA, at least 60% of the stormwater-related studies are being outsourced to stormwater consultants.
“Government is shrinking,” explains Rohin Saleh, a public works hydrologist for the county. “On one hand, we are losing staff without replacement, and on the other hand, the demand is increasing due to development and regulatory requirements.
“At the same time, the system is old and requires studies. With all of this put together, we have to rely more on outside staff and consultants to do work.”
What’s happening in Alameda County is being echoed throughout North America as government entities scramble to get outside help in an effort to keep pace with the need for planning, inventorying, or mapping a municipality’s stormwater infrastructure; designing the stormwater system for a development or business park; and performing flood control services or geographical information systems (GIS) mapping.
Because stormwater consultants are in demand for stormwater engineering services, it’s difficult to find good help, Saleh says. “We want to use some of our consultants again, but we know if we hire them, they don’t have time, so we have to give up on them and go to somebody else,” he says.
In addition, a strong economy means consultants are being pulled out to do private work more than ever for commercial projects and developments, notes Mike Britt, natural resources director for Winter Haven, FL.
Development of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) is driving the trend as well, says Britt. “A lot of consultants are doing work regarding TMDL projects that are keeping them really busy,” he says.
Many municipalities do not have enough time, staff, or in-house expertise to handle all of the functions associated with stormwater treatment. Often, municipalities that have just begun a new stormwater program for regulatory compliance or are starting a stormwater utility are the ones with the greatest need for outside help.
Services Cities Need
In 2004, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago began serving as a stormwater management agency, so officials such as Bill Sheriff, a supervising civil engineer, had to hit the ground running in starting the program from scratch.
“We had experienced consultants help us put together our master plan for the stormwater program,” Sheriff notes. The district in October 2006 awarded two contracts for detailed watershed planning to obtain a watershed analysis, which may include hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and the development of solutions to various stormwater-related problems in each watershed.
“We’re a very small section of the government handling this new effort, which takes a lot of expertise, so we want to take advantage of the best minds out there,” says Sheriff. “It’s helpful to our staff to learn from the consultants as we go forward.”
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has utilized the services of CH2M Hill. The company is headquartered in Englewood, CO, and has 400 offices worldwide, with nearly all of them providing stormwater services.
Those services include stormwater program management such as watershed and water-quality planning; design, construction, and operations of runoff and flood control facilities; implementing low-impact development (LID) techniques for sustainable stormwater management practices; and using the Low Impact Feasibility Evaluation Model for modeling low-impact development source controls, such as impervious area minimization, absorbent landscaping, infiltration facilities, rainwater capture and reuse, and green roofs.
Meanwhile, in Toledo, OH, Tim Murphy, chief of water resources, was in the same predicament as Chicago officials when starting a stormwater program more than two years ago.
“We thought we could handle the program ourselves, not really understanding the full extent of everything required of us,” says Murphy. “Toledo is a Phase I community. We’ve been under permit from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency since 1997 and struggling.”
It became clear the expertise was not available in-house. “It was time to bring in people who had worked with other municipalities,” Murphy says. “We were audited by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which also helped spur along the movement toward getting a consultant to help us.
“At StormCon, you hear about how some cities are doing fantastic work with stormwater, but many of us are struggling with this and facing some real heat now from the federal government,” says Murphy. “We should be, because we’ve had 10 years and we’re still just getting by. We need to do a little bit more.”
Additionally, the guidance being given by state and federal officials wasn’t particularly relevant for Toledo, Murphy notes. “I have a different watershed than somebody in Florida or Michigan,” he says. “A cookie-cutter plan for everybody doesn’t work—we have different types of government and different relationships.
“Since they’re not giving people a lot of guidance, you’ve got to find your own guidance,” he says, adding that Toledo hired URS Corp. for the task. “URS understands that, too, and that’s because they’ve worked with other municipalities a lot,” he says.
URS Corp. is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The company has more than 300 offices worldwide, with 14 US offices across the country specializing in stormwater services. Those services include stormwater management plan development and implementation, watershed studies, stormwater financing and utility development, storm sewer system design, permitting and compliance, sampling and modeling, industrial stormwater management, transportation stormwater management, TMDL studies and compliance, post-construction best management practice (BMP) design, BMP assessments, GIS program support, and database development.
Belle Isle, FL, contracts out all of its engineering services. More than two years ago, municipal officials decided to start a stormwater utility. The city chose Boyle Engineering Corp. to assist in the task. The firm had previous experience helping Belle Isle with various water-quality needs, such as compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
Before starting its stormwater utility, Belle Isle municipal managers became members of the Florida Stormwater Association, where they gleaned information on how to do so.
“We also measured success rates of other cities and found out who they were using to establish their stormwater system,” says Larry Williams, city manager. “Boyle Engineering was already one of our continuing service engineers. Seeing that other areas had successfully used Boyle and were impressed with how Boyle worked with cities in establishing the stormwater utilities, that’s how we chose them.”
Boyle Engineering Corp. is headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, with 22 offices nationwide. The firm provides stormwater consulting services in stormwater utility work, program management, master planning, watershed studies, and flood master plans through offices in Florida, California, Colorado, and New Mexico. Belle Isle also works with another consulting firm for retrofitting work.
Winter Haven, FL, primarily subcontracts large-scale stormwater improvement and water-quality projects. Winter Haven has done a few such projects in the past decade and is preparing to do another one, with consultants doing the design permitting for wetland treatment systems and a nature park, says Britt.
Winter Haven has a chain of 16 lakes connected by navigable canals. The city intends to do a water-quality master plan for that lake chain, updating its water-quality model and also creating a TMDL pollutant loading plan in accordance with the city’s TMDL process. The city in late 2006 began interviewing potential consultants. Britt says Winter Haven hires consultants to make up for lack of particular in-house expertise or personnel to perform needed work, especially for large projects.
Winter Haven does a lot of work with PBS&J. The company is headquartered in Tampa, FL, and has 75 offices in 24 states and Puerto Rico. PBS&J provides stormwater services to clients nationwide through water resources personnel in 22 of its locations. Its stormwater services include floodplain mapping, watershed management planning, water resource technology tools, TMDL and NPDES evaluation, transportation drainage design, water-quality modeling and assessment, hydrology and hydraulics analysis, stormwater compliance, erosion control and sediment transport, dam safety compliance, river and stream restoration, and ecosystem restoration and mitigation.
“They did a nutrient budget five years ago for the chain of lakes that turned out nicely,” says Britt. “They are working with the City of Winter Haven on a groundwater permit application through the water management district and are doing a nice job on that. They submitted a very strong proposal on this chain of lakes water-quality master plan, so they are a busy firm.”
Alameda County, CA, is in the same situation as Winter Haven. “Most often, we need the type of services for which we don’t have available expertise or, even if we do, our people are not up to speed,” Saleh says.
Case in point: high-tech software such as two-dimensional modeling. Modeling is the most important function for which Alameda County hires consulting firms, and Saleh believes it’s best to outsource that function to a firm that uses the software on an ongoing basis. It makes sense to hire someone who uses such software daily to do modeling, Saleh says.
“Flood control projects are complex,” he says. “Sometimes it requires dynamic simulation, and you really have to understand how to model something in a computer to see and optimize the facility, the system, or the design. It’s very critical that these people are strong in their knowledge of basic operation of the software, understand the theory behind it, and apply it for the modeling.”
While there are many reasons Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation, may seek help from stormwater consultants, the benefits that some consulting firms’ stormwater expertise brings to the table are a key factor, says Karl Dreher, a supervising transportation engineer for Caltrans.
The majority of the work for which Dreher’s department seeks stormwater consulting assistance involves pilot studies for developing new BMPs and monitoring the construction of BMPs, training courses for the staff, compliance, expert assistance to some of Caltrans’s districts, assisting with regulatory requirements and TMDLs, and public education on stormwater efforts.
Among the firms with which Caltrans has done business is Brown and Caldwell. The firm, headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA, has 45 locations, all of which provide stormwater services. Those services include basin planning, NPDES/TMDL compliance, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, stormwater sampling and modeling, pollutant source and load characterization, receiving water analysis, BMP selection and design, wet-weather treatment, LID approaches, and watershed management.
In Redmond, WA, developers use consultants more than municipal officials.
Tony Lewis is employed by the City of Redmond in its development services group. He also handles construction inspection duties. New water-quality standards and NPDES permits have necessitated an increased need for consulting services, Lewis notes.
Redmond’s developers pay for their own consultants, and as long as the firms submit acceptable work, Redmond municipal officials have no problem. “If they are not qualified, they don’t get approval on their projects,” says Lewis. “Every once in a while, I have to put my foot down and tell the developer they need to get somebody who knows what they are doing.”
Alternately, Lewis says he’s been surprised by the high caliber of work he’s seen over the past 20 years from some consultants. “I’ve had contractors and even superintendents walk in the door and throw a plan on my desk and I say, ‘Wow! You rock!’” he says.
Of particular concern is a Redmond regulation whereby construction work cannot be done during the winter months unless the developer formulates a wet-weather plan. That plan must be approved by the wet-weather committee, composed of an employee from the construction division (Lewis), the stormwater engineer from development services, and the illicit discharge compliance officer from the natural resources group. Stormwater consulting firms help implement the plan, as well as general construction plans. The review process may take time, and Redmond officials seek a few backup plans in case something goes awry.
“As a last alternative, they have to do a seasonal suspension plan,” says Lewis. “In the rare occasion something fails and they can’t meet the water-quality standards, we’ll ask them to cover the project up with typical BMPs—cover the site with straw and wrap everything in silt fences and visquene—and shut it down for the winter.”
It’s in the developers’ best interest to be cognizant of what’s going to pass inspection, Lewis says, adding that consultants can help.
Clear Water Compliance Services is one of the consulting firms that has worked in Redmond. Headquartered in Lynwood, WA, with offices in Auburn, WA, and Loomis, CA, the company provides stormwater consulting services for construction and industrial sites in preparing stormwater control plans and permit applications; selecting, designing, and manufacturing treatment systems; installing, operating, and maintaining treatment systems; and site monitoring and water testing.
Lewis values the consulting firm’s reputation. “Everything is measured by water quality,” he says. He tells of a time when the state’s Department of Ecology conducted a random inspection of one of Redmond’s construction projects, trying to blow holes in it, and could not.
“I wish everybody would do projects like this,” Lewis says. “Sometimes that’s where the consultants do a good job. The problem is trying to find qualified people.”
Lewis says most consultants know how to take a process from beginning to end, “and part of our job is to make sure they are successful,” he notes. Yet in about one of every three reviews or submittals, city officials have to discuss the process more in-depth.
“As a municipality, we need to be proactive, not reactive,” Lewis says. “We can bleed all over it and design it for them, and I think that’s what some people look for. We’ll tell people what the parameters and requirements are, but we’re not going to design it for them.”
Lewis notes that sometimes consultants are used as third-party monitors. “The contractor can do the water-quality monitoring, but sometimes we require the owners or developers of the property to hire a stormwater consultant to do third-party monitoring,” he says.
The Selection Process and Beyond
Most municipalities use a request for proposal (RFP) bid process in hiring consultants.
“We evaluate all of the consultants and then do the interview process based on their qualifications,” says Dreher. “Through objective criteria, we evaluate their presentation based on their staff, capabilities, and breadth of experience in the stormwater industry before selecting a final firm to negotiate a contract.”
Alameda County, CA, officials negotiate price with the top-qualifying company, and if an agreement cannot be reached, the second and subsequent companies are invited to negotiate a price.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago uses a qualifications-based selection process versus a low-bid process. Applicants are asked to send in a statement of qualifications, which is followed by the interview process and then a more detailed “non-price” written proposal. District officials make a selection based on impressions from the interviews and an examination of the consulting firm’s experience, as well as individual resumes of those on the project’s team. After the selection, the district negotiates the scope of work, including total hours and fees, Sheriff says.
Municipal officials are most interested in experience and a sufficient number of staff when reviewing qualifications. Locally based consultants or national companies that maintain a local presence also are important factors in the bid qualification process.
When Toledo put out bids, it became apparent there were many consulting firms in the marketplace. But not all had the necessary expertise in setting up a stormwater management plan.
“A lot of them think they can do one, but they’ve never actually done one,” Murphy says. “They may have worked on stormwater compliance issues, but when you are talking about a large municipality, there are a lot of different aspects in compliance with an NPDES permit.”
Toledo officials liked that URS is a national company that had expertise working in other large cities, such as Chattanooga, TN.
“We knew whoever we got, it would be a person who had real experience working with a municipality in the stormwater management plan capacity,” Murphy says. “There are price issues that go along with that, but what was important with us was an understanding of how locals struggle with the whole stormwater program.”
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago seeks experience with projects of a similar type and magnitude to match the district’s needs.
When it comes to establishing a stormwater utility, Williams of Belle Isle emphasizes that experience also is crucial in that realm. “It’s important they gather all of the criteria of the cost of maintaining the lakes and stormwater system, and if your city does establish that stormwater utility, how will citizens pay for it? How are you going to sell the idea, because even though the cost is not much during the year—it may go up to $50 per household—it still is an additional tax?
“We worked with Boyle Engineering hand-in-hand, so that by the time we established the stormwater utility by ordinance, we had absolutely no opposition.”
Lewis’s advice to those seeking a stormwater consulting firm is to find out who works for that firm. “Many years ago, it was the engineering firm that had the good reputation,” he says. “Some engineers have jumped ship and joined different firms. The key is finding an experienced engineer who has worked in a particular municipality. He knows the right contacts and the right processes and knows their codes.”
In choosing URS, Toledo officials were impressed during the pre-bid meeting. “URS came with the questions I wanted a consultant to be asking because they had done this before,” Murphy says. “Other consultants just sat there. I knew in my own mind they didn’t really know what we wanted, but then again, I’m not sure that we knew what we wanted. A consulting firm like URS comes in that has worked with other cities and knows the road we’re on and the questions we should be asking of ourselves, and that was important.”
Hiring a firm that has a large number of people on its staff also is a key factor, Britt says. “A lot of consultants have more work than they can do,” he says. “We’re paying a lot more attention to that than we used to because we hear of other cities having trouble getting work done through consultants because they are so busy.”
Williams seeks personalized service once the bid is awarded. “Although Boyle is a large firm, it has local representation. We’re not dealing with a huge firm so far removed from us that we can’t talk to any principals.”
Once a consultant is awarded a contract, there are certain factors municipalities expect in the relationship: responsiveness, the fulfillment of the scope of work in a timely fashion, and accountability. That last factor strikes a cord with many municipal officials.
Saleh, who has had extensive experience hiring consultants, says some relationships sour when a consultant views a project as an opportunity “to make the most money.
“At every twist and turn, they come back and say, ‘You didn’t specify this and therefore we will give you an estimate and it’s going to cost you so much.’ Sure enough, the budget and contingency funds run out very quickly, and they come after you for the money just to finish the report of the original task.”
Murphy also is a stickler for accountability. He’s had experience with consultants outside of the stormwater sector and has established a practice whereby he tracks all communications—phone calls and e-mails—in a binder and makes sure all of his employees do the same.
“There’s a cost involved in those communications,” Murphy notes. “That’s fine, but I think a lot of people don’t realize that. You’re randomly shooting e-mails off or talking on the phone and it costs you. I want to make sure every phone conversation is a meaningful one.
“We need to stretch our dollars to go as far as they can. Usually, when I have a consultant on board with me, I challenge the first bill I get from them in the first couple of months. It’s a matter of going over everything and finding out why we were charged for it and making sure they understand they cannot take us to the cleaners because we are a municipality. I want them to understand we’re watching closely.”
Overall, many consulting firms have been fair, says Saleh. “They’ll approach you in a very professional way because some of these scopes of work are very difficult to define at the beginning. You have to run some scenarios before you can really know what you want to do.”
Saleh says he favors consulting firms whose employees keep track of the time spent on a project. “Sometimes they have to learn the software and they don’t charge you for their learning curve,” he says. “They do their best. It’s obvious when somebody is trying hard. We want consultants to make money, but at the same time, you’ve got to be reasonable and fair. We are looking for people who are professional and really strong in their field—they don’t need a lot of training, their own staff is ready to jump in and do the work, and at the same time, they don’t constantly come back and say, ‘This is not in the scope of service.’”
Among the consulting firms Alameda County has hired is Weston Solutions, headquartered in Westchester, PA. The company has 40 offices nationwide and provides stormwater services coast to coast, including NPDES permit compliance monitoring, wet-weather and dry-weather monitoring, expertise in bacterial source tracking, TMDL compliance, draft implementation plans, and BMP design.
“We have maximum limits for every task: The first task limit may be $50,000, the second $60,000, and so on. What I have seen is that some companies, even if they do a little work on the first task, for some magic reason always spend the maximum of the available $50,000,” says Saleh.
Saleh says what he likes about Weston is that the company keeps his department posted on every task and does not necessarily spend the limit. “They’ll come back and tell us how much is available in one task and ask if we want to shift it, spend it, or not spend it. I really enjoy their professionalism and accounting system,” he says.
Saleh says he avoids consulting firms that think since he’s not an expert in an area, the firm can charge what it wants. “They can’t assume that, because even if I don’t know the first time, little by little I learn and then I will switch to someone else,” he says.
The scope of service is key, Britt points out. “It’s always a good idea [to define it] up front so that everybody has a real expectation of what the projects are and the time frames those get completed in,” he says. “We expect the consultants to know how to get the work completed.”
If a consultant is not directing the process, that brings up questions, Britt says. “We tell them the work product we want and we rely on them to tell us about what they are going to do to get that done,” he says. “We’ve had a few consultants who seemed to be wanting so much detail in that scope of work process that we decided if they couldn’t tell us how to get that done, we would look in other places for consultants.”
Britt says he also avoids consulting firms that attempt to sell municipalities unnecessary services. “A local government needs to be wary of that. Consultants should be preparing cost-feasible and easy-to-implement recommendations, not just academic processes to discover information for no apparent reason. Taxpayers don’t want to see that.”
Budgeting for consulting fees can be difficult initially when establishing a new stormwater program or utility. Williams has found it to be unpredictable.
“Before you establish a master plan and do inventory, you are really shooting from the hip,” he says. “Once you establish your priorities off of the inventory and the master list, then you can assume engineering costs will be a certain percentage of the estimated dollars you are going to have to spend on stormwater projects.”
Toledo officials found it equally vexing, having never used stormwater consultants. “This was one of our toughest problems and one of the questions that came up during the pre-bid meeting,” Murphy says. “I had a ballpark figure. We were just trying to get the best price we could with the company we felt clearly understood what we were trying to do and the struggles we were and are still having.”
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago considers the cost of other projects that aren’t necessarily stormwater-related and draws upon experience doing master planning and construction design experience to budget annual costs, says Sheriff.
Saleh’s department predicts the type of studies or projects needed based on the five-year plan and budgets for consulting services accordingly. “However, sometimes when we need to have somebody on an emergency basis and we don’t have available funding, we’ll do whatever we can to find means and ways to have consultants, even if it’s above and beyond the level we initially projected,” he says.
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Indeed, the budgeting and the bidding process gets suspended sometimes in the case of an emergency weather event, which can mean an overwhelmed municipal staff may need immediate outside assistance that cannot wait for a months-long bid and approval process.
“We found that out during hurricane season,” notes Britt of Winter Haven. The city has continuing contracts with six firms for such purposes.
Author's Bio: Carol Brzozowski is a journalist living in Coral Springs, FL.
Buyers Guide 2008
Selecting a Stormwater Consultant
What do municipal programs look for?
In Alameda County, CA, at least 60% of the stormwater-related studies are being outsourced to stormwater consultants.
“Government is shrinking,” explains Rohin Saleh, a public works hydrologist for the county. “On one hand, we are losing staff without replacement, and on the other hand, the demand is increasing due to development and regulatory requirements.
“At the same time, the system is old and requires studies. With all of this put together, we have to rely more on outside staff and consultants to do work.”
What’s happening in Alameda County is being echoed throughout North America as government entities scramble to get outside help in an effort to keep pace with the need for planning, inventorying, or mapping a municipality’s stormwater infrastructure; designing the stormwater system for a development or business park; and performing flood control services or geographical information systems (GIS) mapping.
Because stormwater consultants are in demand for stormwater engineering services, it’s difficult to find good help, Saleh says. “We want to use some of our consultants again, but we know if we hire them, they don’t have time, so we have to give up on them and go to somebody else,” he says.
In addition, a strong economy means consultants are being pulled out to do private work more than ever for commercial projects and developments, notes Mike Britt, natural resources director for Winter Haven, FL.
Development of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) is driving the trend as well, says Britt. “A lot of consultants are doing work regarding TMDL projects that are keeping them really busy,” he says.
Many municipalities do not have enough time, staff, or in-house expertise to handle all of the functions associated with stormwater treatment. Often, municipalities that have just begun a new stormwater program for regulatory compliance or are starting a stormwater utility are the ones with the greatest need for outside help.
Services Cities Need
In 2004, the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago began serving as a stormwater management agency, so officials such as Bill Sheriff, a supervising civil engineer, had to hit the ground running in starting the program from scratch.
“We had experienced consultants help us put together our master plan for the stormwater program,” Sheriff notes. The district in October 2006 awarded two contracts for detailed watershed planning to obtain a watershed analysis, which may include hydrologic and hydraulic modeling and the development of solutions to various stormwater-related problems in each watershed.
“We’re a very small section of the government handling this new effort, which takes a lot of expertise, so we want to take advantage of the best minds out there,” says Sheriff. “It’s helpful to our staff to learn from the consultants as we go forward.”
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago has utilized the services of CH2M Hill. The company is headquartered in Englewood, CO, and has 400 offices worldwide, with nearly all of them providing stormwater services.
Those services include stormwater program management such as watershed and water-quality planning; design, construction, and operations of runoff and flood control facilities; implementing low-impact development (LID) techniques for sustainable stormwater management practices; and using the Low Impact Feasibility Evaluation Model for modeling low-impact development source controls, such as impervious area minimization, absorbent landscaping, infiltration facilities, rainwater capture and reuse, and green roofs.
Meanwhile, in Toledo, OH, Tim Murphy, chief of water resources, was in the same predicament as Chicago officials when starting a stormwater program more than two years ago.
“We thought we could handle the program ourselves, not really understanding the full extent of everything required of us,” says Murphy. “Toledo is a Phase I community. We’ve been under permit from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency since 1997 and struggling.”
It became clear the expertise was not available in-house. “It was time to bring in people who had worked with other municipalities,” Murphy says. “We were audited by the US Environmental Protection Agency, which also helped spur along the movement toward getting a consultant to help us.
“At StormCon, you hear about how some cities are doing fantastic work with stormwater, but many of us are struggling with this and facing some real heat now from the federal government,” says Murphy. “We should be, because we’ve had 10 years and we’re still just getting by. We need to do a little bit more.”
Additionally, the guidance being given by state and federal officials wasn’t particularly relevant for Toledo, Murphy notes. “I have a different watershed than somebody in Florida or Michigan,” he says. “A cookie-cutter plan for everybody doesn’t work—we have different types of government and different relationships.
“Since they’re not giving people a lot of guidance, you’ve got to find your own guidance,” he says, adding that Toledo hired URS Corp. for the task. “URS understands that, too, and that’s because they’ve worked with other municipalities a lot,” he says.
URS Corp. is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The company has more than 300 offices worldwide, with 14 US offices across the country specializing in stormwater services. Those services include stormwater management plan development and implementation, watershed studies, stormwater financing and utility development, storm sewer system design, permitting and compliance, sampling and modeling, industrial stormwater management, transportation stormwater management, TMDL studies and compliance, post-construction best management practice (BMP) design, BMP assessments, GIS program support, and database development.
Belle Isle, FL, contracts out all of its engineering services. More than two years ago, municipal officials decided to start a stormwater utility. The city chose Boyle Engineering Corp. to assist in the task. The firm had previous experience helping Belle Isle with various water-quality needs, such as compliance with the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
Before starting its stormwater utility, Belle Isle municipal managers became members of the Florida Stormwater Association, where they gleaned information on how to do so.
“We also measured success rates of other cities and found out who they were using to establish their stormwater system,” says Larry Williams, city manager. “Boyle Engineering was already one of our continuing service engineers. Seeing that other areas had successfully used Boyle and were impressed with how Boyle worked with cities in establishing the stormwater utilities, that’s how we chose them.”
Boyle Engineering Corp. is headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, with 22 offices nationwide. The firm provides stormwater consulting services in stormwater utility work, program management, master planning, watershed studies, and flood master plans through offices in Florida, California, Colorado, and New Mexico. Belle Isle also works with another consulting firm for retrofitting work.
Winter Haven, FL, primarily subcontracts large-scale stormwater improvement and water-quality projects. Winter Haven has done a few such projects in the past decade and is preparing to do another one, with consultants doing the design permitting for wetland treatment systems and a nature park, says Britt.
Winter Haven has a chain of 16 lakes connected by navigable canals. The city intends to do a water-quality master plan for that lake chain, updating its water-quality model and also creating a TMDL pollutant loading plan in accordance with the city’s TMDL process. The city in late 2006 began interviewing potential consultants. Britt says Winter Haven hires consultants to make up for lack of particular in-house expertise or personnel to perform needed work, especially for large projects.
Winter Haven does a lot of work with PBS&J. The company is headquartered in Tampa, FL, and has 75 offices in 24 states and Puerto Rico. PBS&J provides stormwater services to clients nationwide through water resources personnel in 22 of its locations. Its stormwater services include floodplain mapping, watershed management planning, water resource technology tools, TMDL and NPDES evaluation, transportation drainage design, water-quality modeling and assessment, hydrology and hydraulics analysis, stormwater compliance, erosion control and sediment transport, dam safety compliance, river and stream restoration, and ecosystem restoration and mitigation.
“They did a nutrient budget five years ago for the chain of lakes that turned out nicely,” says Britt. “They are working with the City of Winter Haven on a groundwater permit application through the water management district and are doing a nice job on that. They submitted a very strong proposal on this chain of lakes water-quality master plan, so they are a busy firm.”
Alameda County, CA, is in the same situation as Winter Haven. “Most often, we need the type of services for which we don’t have available expertise or, even if we do, our people are not up to speed,” Saleh says.
Case in point: high-tech software such as two-dimensional modeling. Modeling is the most important function for which Alameda County hires consulting firms, and Saleh believes it’s best to outsource that function to a firm that uses the software on an ongoing basis. It makes sense to hire someone who uses such software daily to do modeling, Saleh says.
“Flood control projects are complex,” he says. “Sometimes it requires dynamic simulation, and you really have to understand how to model something in a computer to see and optimize the facility, the system, or the design. It’s very critical that these people are strong in their knowledge of basic operation of the software, understand the theory behind it, and apply it for the modeling.”
While there are many reasons Caltrans, the California Department of Transportation, may seek help from stormwater consultants, the benefits that some consulting firms’ stormwater expertise brings to the table are a key factor, says Karl Dreher, a supervising transportation engineer for Caltrans.
The majority of the work for which Dreher’s department seeks stormwater consulting assistance involves pilot studies for developing new BMPs and monitoring the construction of BMPs, training courses for the staff, compliance, expert assistance to some of Caltrans’s districts, assisting with regulatory requirements and TMDLs, and public education on stormwater efforts.
Among the firms with which Caltrans has done business is Brown and Caldwell. The firm, headquartered in Walnut Creek, CA, has 45 locations, all of which provide stormwater services. Those services include basin planning, NPDES/TMDL compliance, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, stormwater sampling and modeling, pollutant source and load characterization, receiving water analysis, BMP selection and design, wet-weather treatment, LID approaches, and watershed management.
In Redmond, WA, developers use consultants more than municipal officials.
Tony Lewis is employed by the City of Redmond in its development services group. He also handles construction inspection duties. New water-quality standards and NPDES permits have necessitated an increased need for consulting services, Lewis notes.
Redmond’s developers pay for their own consultants, and as long as the firms submit acceptable work, Redmond municipal officials have no problem. “If they are not qualified, they don’t get approval on their projects,” says Lewis. “Every once in a while, I have to put my foot down and tell the developer they need to get somebody who knows what they are doing.”
Alternately, Lewis says he’s been surprised by the high caliber of work he’s seen over the past 20 years from some consultants. “I’ve had contractors and even superintendents walk in the door and throw a plan on my desk and I say, ‘Wow! You rock!’” he says.
Of particular concern is a Redmond regulation whereby construction work cannot be done during the winter months unless the developer formulates a wet-weather plan. That plan must be approved by the wet-weather committee, composed of an employee from the construction division (Lewis), the stormwater engineer from development services, and the illicit discharge compliance officer from the natural resources group. Stormwater consulting firms help implement the plan, as well as general construction plans. The review process may take time, and Redmond officials seek a few backup plans in case something goes awry.
“As a last alternative, they have to do a seasonal suspension plan,” says Lewis. “In the rare occasion something fails and they can’t meet the water-quality standards, we’ll ask them to cover the project up with typical BMPs—cover the site with straw and wrap everything in silt fences and visquene—and shut it down for the winter.”
It’s in the developers’ best interest to be cognizant of what’s going to pass inspection, Lewis says, adding that consultants can help.
Clear Water Compliance Services is one of the consulting firms that has worked in Redmond. Headquartered in Lynwood, WA, with offices in Auburn, WA, and Loomis, CA, the company provides stormwater consulting services for construction and industrial sites in preparing stormwater control plans and permit applications; selecting, designing, and manufacturing treatment systems; installing, operating, and maintaining treatment systems; and site monitoring and water testing.
Lewis values the consulting firm’s reputation. “Everything is measured by water quality,” he says. He tells of a time when the state’s Department of Ecology conducted a random inspection of one of Redmond’s construction projects, trying to blow holes in it, and could not.
“I wish everybody would do projects like this,” Lewis says. “Sometimes that’s where the consultants do a good job. The problem is trying to find qualified people.”
Lewis says most consultants know how to take a process from beginning to end, “and part of our job is to make sure they are successful,” he notes. Yet in about one of every three reviews or submittals, city officials have to discuss the process more in-depth.
“As a municipality, we need to be proactive, not reactive,” Lewis says. “We can bleed all over it and design it for them, and I think that’s what some people look for. We’ll tell people what the parameters and requirements are, but we’re not going to design it for them.”
Lewis notes that sometimes consultants are used as third-party monitors. “The contractor can do the water-quality monitoring, but sometimes we require the owners or developers of the property to hire a stormwater consultant to do third-party monitoring,” he says.
The Selection Process and Beyond
Most municipalities use a request for proposal (RFP) bid process in hiring consultants.
“We evaluate all of the consultants and then do the interview process based on their qualifications,” says Dreher. “Through objective criteria, we evaluate their presentation based on their staff, capabilities, and breadth of experience in the stormwater industry before selecting a final firm to negotiate a contract.”
Alameda County, CA, officials negotiate price with the top-qualifying company, and if an agreement cannot be reached, the second and subsequent companies are invited to negotiate a price.
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago uses a qualifications-based selection process versus a low-bid process. Applicants are asked to send in a statement of qualifications, which is followed by the interview process and then a more detailed “non-price” written proposal. District officials make a selection based on impressions from the interviews and an examination of the consulting firm’s experience, as well as individual resumes of those on the project’s team. After the selection, the district negotiates the scope of work, including total hours and fees, Sheriff says.
Municipal officials are most interested in experience and a sufficient number of staff when reviewing qualifications. Locally based consultants or national companies that maintain a local presence also are important factors in the bid qualification process.
When Toledo put out bids, it became apparent there were many consulting firms in the marketplace. But not all had the necessary expertise in setting up a stormwater management plan.
“A lot of them think they can do one, but they’ve never actually done one,” Murphy says. “They may have worked on stormwater compliance issues, but when you are talking about a large municipality, there are a lot of different aspects in compliance with an NPDES permit.”
Toledo officials liked that URS is a national company that had expertise working in other large cities, such as Chattanooga, TN.
“We knew whoever we got, it would be a person who had real experience working with a municipality in the stormwater management plan capacity,” Murphy says. “There are price issues that go along with that, but what was important with us was an understanding of how locals struggle with the whole stormwater program.”
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago seeks experience with projects of a similar type and magnitude to match the district’s needs.
When it comes to establishing a stormwater utility, Williams of Belle Isle emphasizes that experience also is crucial in that realm. “It’s important they gather all of the criteria of the cost of maintaining the lakes and stormwater system, and if your city does establish that stormwater utility, how will citizens pay for it? How are you going to sell the idea, because even though the cost is not much during the year—it may go up to $50 per household—it still is an additional tax?
“We worked with Boyle Engineering hand-in-hand, so that by the time we established the stormwater utility by ordinance, we had absolutely no opposition.”
Lewis’s advice to those seeking a stormwater consulting firm is to find out who works for that firm. “Many years ago, it was the engineering firm that had the good reputation,” he says. “Some engineers have jumped ship and joined different firms. The key is finding an experienced engineer who has worked in a particular municipality. He knows the right contacts and the right processes and knows their codes.”
In choosing URS, Toledo officials were impressed during the pre-bid meeting. “URS came with the questions I wanted a consultant to be asking because they had done this before,” Murphy says. “Other consultants just sat there. I knew in my own mind they didn’t really know what we wanted, but then again, I’m not sure that we knew what we wanted. A consulting firm like URS comes in that has worked with other cities and knows the road we’re on and the questions we should be asking of ourselves, and that was important.”
Hiring a firm that has a large number of people on its staff also is a key factor, Britt says. “A lot of consultants have more work than they can do,” he says. “We’re paying a lot more attention to that than we used to because we hear of other cities having trouble getting work done through consultants because they are so busy.”
Williams seeks personalized service once the bid is awarded. “Although Boyle is a large firm, it has local representation. We’re not dealing with a huge firm so far removed from us that we can’t talk to any principals.”
Once a consultant is awarded a contract, there are certain factors municipalities expect in the relationship: responsiveness, the fulfillment of the scope of work in a timely fashion, and accountability. That last factor strikes a cord with many municipal officials.
Saleh, who has had extensive experience hiring consultants, says some relationships sour when a consultant views a project as an opportunity “to make the most money.
“At every twist and turn, they come back and say, ‘You didn’t specify this and therefore we will give you an estimate and it’s going to cost you so much.’ Sure enough, the budget and contingency funds run out very quickly, and they come after you for the money just to finish the report of the original task.”
Murphy also is a stickler for accountability. He’s had experience with consultants outside of the stormwater sector and has established a practice whereby he tracks all communications—phone calls and e-mails—in a binder and makes sure all of his employees do the same.
“There’s a cost involved in those communications,” Murphy notes. “That’s fine, but I think a lot of people don’t realize that. You’re randomly shooting e-mails off or talking on the phone and it costs you. I want to make sure every phone conversation is a meaningful one.
“We need to stretch our dollars to go as far as they can. Usually, when I have a consultant on board with me, I challenge the first bill I get from them in the first couple of months. It’s a matter of going over everything and finding out why we were charged for it and making sure they understand they cannot take us to the cleaners because we are a municipality. I want them to understand we’re watching closely.”
Overall, many consulting firms have been fair, says Saleh. “They’ll approach you in a very professional way because some of these scopes of work are very difficult to define at the beginning. You have to run some scenarios before you can really know what you want to do.”
Saleh says he favors consulting firms whose employees keep track of the time spent on a project. “Sometimes they have to learn the software and they don’t charge you for their learning curve,” he says. “They do their best. It’s obvious when somebody is trying hard. We want consultants to make money, but at the same time, you’ve got to be reasonable and fair. We are looking for people who are professional and really strong in their field—they don’t need a lot of training, their own staff is ready to jump in and do the work, and at the same time, they don’t constantly come back and say, ‘This is not in the scope of service.’”
Among the consulting firms Alameda County has hired is Weston Solutions, headquartered in Westchester, PA. The company has 40 offices nationwide and provides stormwater services coast to coast, including NPDES permit compliance monitoring, wet-weather and dry-weather monitoring, expertise in bacterial source tracking, TMDL compliance, draft implementation plans, and BMP design.
“We have maximum limits for every task: The first task limit may be $50,000, the second $60,000, and so on. What I have seen is that some companies, even if they do a little work on the first task, for some magic reason always spend the maximum of the available $50,000,” says Saleh.
Saleh says what he likes about Weston is that the company keeps his department posted on every task and does not necessarily spend the limit. “They’ll come back and tell us how much is available in one task and ask if we want to shift it, spend it, or not spend it. I really enjoy their professionalism and accounting system,” he says.
Saleh says he avoids consulting firms that think since he’s not an expert in an area, the firm can charge what it wants. “They can’t assume that, because even if I don’t know the first time, little by little I learn and then I will switch to someone else,” he says.
The scope of service is key, Britt points out. “It’s always a good idea [to define it] up front so that everybody has a real expectation of what the projects are and the time frames those get completed in,” he says. “We expect the consultants to know how to get the work completed.”
If a consultant is not directing the process, that brings up questions, Britt says. “We tell them the work product we want and we rely on them to tell us about what they are going to do to get that done,” he says. “We’ve had a few consultants who seemed to be wanting so much detail in that scope of work process that we decided if they couldn’t tell us how to get that done, we would look in other places for consultants.”
Britt says he also avoids consulting firms that attempt to sell municipalities unnecessary services. “A local government needs to be wary of that. Consultants should be preparing cost-feasible and easy-to-implement recommendations, not just academic processes to discover information for no apparent reason. Taxpayers don’t want to see that.”
Budgeting for consulting fees can be difficult initially when establishing a new stormwater program or utility. Williams has found it to be unpredictable.
“Before you establish a master plan and do inventory, you are really shooting from the hip,” he says. “Once you establish your priorities off of the inventory and the master list, then you can assume engineering costs will be a certain percentage of the estimated dollars you are going to have to spend on stormwater projects.”
Toledo officials found it equally vexing, having never used stormwater consultants. “This was one of our toughest problems and one of the questions that came up during the pre-bid meeting,” Murphy says. “I had a ballpark figure. We were just trying to get the best price we could with the company we felt clearly understood what we were trying to do and the struggles we were and are still having.”
The Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago considers the cost of other projects that aren’t necessarily stormwater-related and draws upon experience doing master planning and construction design experience to budget annual costs, says Sheriff.
Saleh’s department predicts the type of studies or projects needed based on the five-year plan and budgets for consulting services accordingly. “However, sometimes when we need to have somebody on an emergency basis and we don’t have available funding, we’ll do whatever we can to find means and ways to have consultants, even if it’s above and beyond the level we initially projected,” he says.
Indeed, the budgeting and the bidding process gets suspended sometimes in the case of an emergency weather event, which can mean an overwhelmed municipal staff may need immediate outside assistance that cannot wait for a months-long bid and approval process.
“We found that out during hurricane season,” notes Britt of Winter Haven. The city has continuing contracts with six firms for such purposes.