SALT LAKE CITY - The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded two contracts totaling $30.7 million to Surveying Services, Inc., of Santa Fe, N.M. ($16.2 M) and Flatirons Surveying & Engineering, Inc., of Boulder, Colo., ($14.5 M) for on-going land survey work over the next five years to support projects primarily in New Mexico, and western Colorado .

Both contracts were awarded as 'Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity' to provide the maximum flexibility necessary to fulfill the essential land survey work associated with high-priority programs and projects including the Rio Grande and Middle Rio Grande projects, Native American and drought relief programs and work associated with the Aamodt and Taos water rights settlements. The contracts will also support survey work throughout the upper Colorado River Basin.

"Our continued ability to ensure adequate water supplies in the West depends upon a substantial amount of land survey work," Reclamation Commissioner Michael L. Connor said. "These surveying contracts will create jobs in a region that needs them and will help us perform this work with the greatest efficiency and cost savings. These contracts also bring us one step closer to meeting our top priorities of providing a reliable source of clean water to Native American communities and promoting river restoration activities associated with President Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative."

The selection of two contractors provides for the full range and quantity of anticipated survey work that can easily be obtained through the IDIQ contract via task orders. Approximately 90 percent of the anticipated survey work will occur in New Mexico with a small amount in western Colorado.