The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District’s Davis Aqueduct Reach 1 Parallel Pipeline Project

Procurement Summary

The Weber Basin Water Conservancy District is requesting a waiver of the BABAA requirement for its Davis Aqueduct Reach 1 Parallel Pipeline. Weber Basin applied for FEMA BRIC funding based on a 2021 BRIC Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). As this was prior to BABAA being signed into law, the NOFO did not include any reference to BABAA requirements. In addition, significant planning and design occurred prior to May 14, 2022, the implementation date of the BABAA requirement. It is in the public interest to waive the BABAA requirement for this project because at the time of the funding application, the NOFO did not include a reference to BABAA. Additionally, redesigning with consideration of BABAA would impose significant delays to the project, risk failure to deliver water in a seismic event, and would impose an undue cost burden on the community. Absent a public interest waiver issued by FEMA, the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District would be required to further revise the project timeline to incorporate BABAA requirements and address the increased cost of construction due to delay and rebidding. Since BABAA was not a consideration during planning and design, Weber Basin is learning that products are not available during the construction process, rather than determining availability earlier in the planning and design phase. As a result, the project is incurring additional costs due to starts, stops and delays versus being able to manage project resources efficiently. The project will fall behind on its milestones and continue to put the public at risk of a water shortage if a seismic event occurs. These impacts are all compounding in the absence of a waiver.

Description of items, products and materials or categories of such anticipated to be covered by this waiver

This waiver action permits the use of non-domestic iron, steel, construction materials and manufactured products in the Davis Aqueduct Reach 1 Parallel Pipeline project. These products will be obtained by the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District and incorporated into the subject project.

Public comment link

Final waiver link

Is this a general applicability waiver?