Request Proposals Technical Support Consultant

[Request for Proposals] Technical Support Consultant

I. SUMMARY
The San Juan Bay Estuary Partnership (Estuario) seeks qualified applicants to provide services as a Technical Support Consultant and support Estuario’s water quality and environmental data monitoring and related efforts through technical support, data management, analysis, synthesis, and visualization. The Technical Support Consultant is a senior-level service provider (an individual, team, or consulting firm) with the technical expertise needed to support and enhance Estuario’s water quality monitoring program, synthesize and integrate environmental data, conduct spatial and temporal analyses, carry out data management, analysis, and interpretation and support the development of communication and visualization data tools such as a data dashboard.

This service provider will unite, automate, and evaluate existing water quality and living resources data, and develop technical reports presenting their analysis. With this data, the Technical Support Consultant will provide a baseline for which to gauge progress toward water quality and living resource goals and assess impacts of the infrastructure projects. and presenting the data and analysis to the group.

The information included in the dashboard will be published on the Estuario webpage and will be publicly available.

II. ABOUT ESTUARIO
The Corporation for the Conservation of the San Juan Bay Estuary is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that operates the San Juan Bay Estuary Partnership, or Estuario. The Estuario became part of the National Estuary Program (NEP) in 1994 and is the only tropical and non-continental location within the NEP under Section 320 of the Clean Water Act. The Estuario’s mission is to restore and conserve the waters and associated ecosystems of the San Juan Bay Estuary and its watershed as a sustainable axis of social and economic development.

The work is guided by the Estuario Plan, a master restoration plan for the San Juan Bay Estuary, officially known as the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP).

III. ABOUT THE PROJECT
Since 2008, Estuario has implemented a water quality monitoring program that follows an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-approved Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP) and is supported by certified citizen scientists. The monitoring efforts involve collecting and analyzing water samples for various parameters, including fecal enterococcus, nitrate + nitrite, oil and grease, total phosphorus, pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature, specific conductance, turbidity, andwater column transparency at monitoring stations within the estuary system and its tributaries.

Through this initiative, Estuario evaluates the effectiveness of implemented Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) actions and assesses both natural and human-induced impacts on the system. Water quality data is available through the Estuario website ((Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).), which provides scientifically based information to the public, government, and academia. Tracking progress toward established water quality targets throughout the San Juan Bay Estuary (SJBE) system requires consistent monitoring and effective data management, analysis, visualization, synthesis, and reporting.

Enhanced data collection, analysis, visualization, and reporting will also be essential for quantifying baseline water quality conditions before the construction of anticipated infrastructure projects (for example the Caño Martín Peña and Hato Rey/Río Piedras watershed), and for tracking changes in water quality following the completion of these projects. The Estuario will also count on a Collaborative Water Quality Monitoring Network that will help to collect water quality data more frequently and efficiently and enable quick turnaround on interpretation and reporting for corrective measurements.

IV. SCOPE OF WORK
The Technical Support Consultant is a senior-level service provider (an individual, team, or consulting firm) with the technical expertise to support and enhance Estuario’s water quality monitoring program. The Technical Support Consultant will unite,…