Fiscal Year 1997 Geologic and Water Resources Division Partnership in the Federal-State Cooperative Program To: "A - Division Chief and Staff", "B - Branch Chiefs and Offices", "DC - All District Chiefs", "AO - All Administrative Officers" cc: "Stephen F Blanchard, Deputy ACHO, Reston, VA ", "Alice C Dilandro, Secretary (S), Reston, VA ", "Sandra E Mitrani, Secretary, Reston, VA ", "Barbara D Wyant Reston, VA ", " , WRD Archive File, Reston, VA " From: "Robert M Hirsch, Chief Hydrologist, Reston, VA " Subject: FY 1997 Geologic and Water Resources Division Partnership in the Federal-State Cooperative Program Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 10:14:17 -0400 Sender: "Sandra E Mitrani, Secretary, Reston, VA " In Reply Refer To: Mail Stop 442 September 20, 1996 WATER RESOURCES DIVISION MEMORANDUM NO. 96.35 GEOLOGIC DIVISION POLICY MEMORANDUM NO. 96-12 Subject: Fiscal Year 1997 Geologic and Water Resources Division Partnership in the Federal-State Cooperative Program The purpose of this partnership is to engage in collaborative projects to investigate water and geologic related issues with State and local municipality cooperators. The following policy applies to work efforts undertaken in this partnership. General coordination, management, and project selection will be done by the Water Resources Division (WRD) District Chief and the appropriate Geologic Division (GD) Chief Scientist. Priorities for project work will reflect the needs and capabilities of both divisions. Attached is a listing of WRD and GD points of contact. The WRD District Chief will be the single U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) point of contact with cooperators in negotiating and making financial arrangements for this work. The WRD District Chief will sign Joint Funding Agreements (JFA) on behalf of both divisions that will encumber the appropriated funds in both divisions. In situations where the work is to be performed by more than one WRD district, the Regional Hydrologist will sign the JFA on behalf of both divisions. The JFA should be signed by the cooperator before the start of work. Any transfers of funds between divisions should be completed prior to the start of work. The WRD District Chief and the GD Chief Scientist will select a project chief for each work effort. The project chief will be responsible for management of the project-related work, the project budget, and the project personnel in both divisions. Issues that cannot be resolved by the project chief will be addressed jointly by the WRD District Chief and the GD Chief Scientist. In fiscal year 1997, the Geologic Division will set a goal of $1 million to match cooperator offerings through this partnership agreement. Work to be conducted through this partnership agreement must be consistent with program activities as outlined in GD FY 1997 program plans. WRD contributions will be limited to the funds appropriated for the Federal-State Cooperative Program line item; no WRD funds appropriated for other line items will be applied to this effort. The cost share relationship associated with Federal-State Cooperative Program work will be retained in all GD/WRD partnership efforts. The USGS contribution (GD and WRD contributions totalled together) will not exceed 50 percent of the total project funds, but the cooperator contributions may exceed 50 percent of the total project funds. The costs of each work effort will be captured and accounted for in a dedicated project account within each cost center and not commingled with other non-cooperative program efforts. This is important to support the cost share ratio and because our financial system does not distribute costs to customers below the account level (e.g., subaccounts are not acceptable). The cost center performing the work will maintain its own project account and document its own costs. Costs should be developed using the full and normal assessment rates associated with the office performing the work. GD personnel may be collocated with WRD personnel in district offices or regional centers, but also may work out of their home team office or vice versa. Project scope and purpose must be related to the GD program that is funding the effort to avoid the need for a reprogramming action. This relation will be determined by the GD Chief Scientist. Proposal documentation should be prepared jointly by personnel from both divisions and address the following: resource needs; time frames; reporting requirements (program and financial); billing issues; deliverables; planned publications; and other pertinent criteria. The proposal should include a project budget which includes all costs (direct and indirect) for all project activities. Indirect costs should be broken out on project proposals used internally but should only be shown to cooperators in the aggregate with all direct and indirect costs for both divisions added together. Agreements should be executed with only the aggregated total of the USGS effort shown. Funding will only be transferred between the divisions when appropriated funds in one division are needed to fund work being performed by another division. The appropriated funding that is transferred between divisions will be in accordance with assessment (indirect cost) policies and interdivision assessment rules. Cooperator funds moved between divisions will be suballotted. Transfers should never be accomplished with a standard voucher. Cooperator funds will be suballotted in gross. The suballotment memorandum will specify the project deliverables, time frames, billing responsibility, and reporting requirements (program and financial) and include attached copies of the project proposal and JFA. If the project results in additional scientific papers or reports that are not included in the negotiated project deliverables or budgeted in the proposal, those papers/reports must be financed by another source. Reports and other scientific papers should be produced jointly by both divisions in order to provide consistent products to the cooperators. The project chief is responsible for the management of this process. The successful completion of the cooperative work effort will be shown as a critical result in all project personnel work plans. The project chief will be given the opportunity to provide input into the rating of this critical result for project personnel in both divisions. Additional procedural instructions for the execution of this program in both divisions will be distributed at a future date. Please contact the appropriate Administrative Officer for additional information. /s/ /s/ Robert M. Hirsch P. Patrick Leahy Chief Hydrologist Chief Geologist Attachments (not transmitted electronically) Distribution: Water Resources Division - A, B, DC, AO Geologic Division - CG, ACGS, ACGO, RG, CS, AO This memorandum supersedes the guidance contained in the March 25, 1996, memorandum to Regional Geologists and Regional Hydrologists, subject "Participation of the Geologic Division in the Water Resources Division Federal-State Cooperative Program."