Subject:
Title
Florida Department of Environmental Protection Grant INV24: Mobile Algae Harvesting to Mitigate Harmful Algal Blooms in Brackish Waterways
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Fiscal Impact:
$999,000 of grant funds
Dept/Office:
Natural Resources Management
Requested Action:
Recommendation
It is requested that the Board of County Commissioners 1) authorize the Chair to execute this grant contract; 2) authorize the Chair to execute a contract up to the grant funding amount, as needed to accomplish the work; subject to the approval of the County Attorney’s Office, Purchasing, and Risk Management 3) authorize the County Manager to execute grant and contract amendments, as needed, subject to the approval of the County Attorney’s Office, Purchasing, and Risk Management; 4) authorize the County Manager to execute the sole source justification form needed to implement the grant-funded work; and 5) authorize the County Manager to approve associated budget change requests.
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Summary Explanation and Background:
Grant funding in the amount of $999,000 has been awarded to Brevard County from the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Innovative Technology program for a proposed Mobile Algae Harvesting to Mitigate Harmful Algal Blooms in Brackish Waters project. This project will deploy a barge-mounted Hydronucleation Flotation Technology (HFT) algal harvester in the Indian River Lagoon for emergency response in targeted “hot spot” locations to mitigate harmful algal blooms (HAB) as they occur and to reduce nutrient loading entering the Indian River Lagoon through key tributaries.
Brevard County Natural Resources Management plans to contract with AECOM Technical Services to complete the work as outlined in the FDEP contract. AECOM is the only known company that can provide a shovel-ready HFT algae harvesting system. AECOM’s HFT unit is a proprietary design and is patent pending. AECOM has been awarded sole-source contracts for HAB-related algae harvesting services with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a pilot demonstration in Lake Okeechobee, FL. They were then awarded another sole source contract to further the pilot research at Saddle Creek, FL and Lake Chautauqua, NY. The State of New York awarded another sole source contract for the Lake Agawam, NY project, and most recently, St. Johns River Water Management was awarded a very similar grant from FDEP, which on a sole source basis, contracted with AECOM for a project at Lake Jessup in Apopka.
Based on successful demonstration projects in freshwater applications, as mentioned above, Brevard County requested a grant to test the performance of the system in brackish waters.
Clerk to the Board Instructions:
Please execute 2 copies of the grant agreement, one copy for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and one to be returned to Natural Resources.