BOARD MEETING DATE: October 6, 2006
AGENDA NO. 3

Amend Contract with Stratus Consulting for Tasks Related to 2007 AQMP

SYNOPSIS:

AQMD currently has a sole-source contract with Stratus Consulting for health benefit assessment work related to the 2007 AQMP. Stratus Consulting is updating morbidity and mortality risk factors of ozone and PM (including PM 2.5) and the willingness to pay values for different health effects. This action is to add an additional $30,000 for three tasks beyond the current scope of work and to extend the contract to June 30, 2007. Funding for the amendment is available in the FY 2006-07 Professional and Special Services budget.

COMMITTEE:

Administrative, September 15, 2006, Recommended for Approval

RECOMMENDED ACTIONS:

Approve the amended contract with Stratus Consulting for three additional tasks at a cost of $30,000, thus bringing the total contractual amount to $79,500.

Barry R. Wallerstein, D.Env.
Executive Officer

Background

As a part of the socioeconomic assessment of costs and benefits of the 2007 AQMP, AQMD currently has a sole-source contract with Stratus Consulting for the health benefit assessment. Stratus Consulting is updating the morbidity and mortality risk factors of ozone and PM (including PM 2.5) and the willingness to pay values for different health effects. This, together with the air quality modeling results will examine the monetary health benefit resulting from compliance with the air quality standards.

Specifically, the existing contract calls for Stratus Consulting to 1) review recent health benefit assessments conducted nationwide and in California for ozone and PM; 2) identify values of risk factors in concentration-response functions and willingness to pay or cost of illness for appropriate health endpoints; 3) report risk factors by demographic cohort (typically age); 4) select measures of uncertainty related to the risk factors and discuss other sources of uncertainty in the benefits assessment; and 5) consider issues related to threshold concentrations in concentration-response functions and aggregation of health benefits across health endpoints and pollutants to avoid double counting of benefits.

Proposal

The proposal is to add three additional tasks at a cost of $30,000. These tasks include: 1) provide baseline incidence data for various health effects for the South Coast Air Basin; 2) use the BenMAP program to join AQMD air quality modeling results with the risk factors, willingness to pay values, and incidence rates; and 3) travel costs. The first two additional tasks will be documented and incorporated into the final report that Stratus Consulting will be submitting to the AQMD. To accommodate the completion of this work, the contract will be extended to June 30, 2007.

Benefits to AQMD

Successful completion of these tasks will significantly improve the AQMD’s health benefit assessment for the 2007 AQMP by providing updated baseline incidence data on mortality, hospitalization, and other selected health endpoints to serve as inputs to the BenMAP program which will be used to perform the health benefit assessment. Stratus Consulting will also modify and test the BenMAP program using the AQMD’s air quality modeling results and other elements from the existing contract and the incidence data. Furthermore, a budget for travel will allow the contractors to meet with stakeholders and address concerns regarding their work, if necessary. There is no travel budget in the existing contract.

Sole-Source Justification

Section II, Step 3 (C) of the Consultant Selection Policy and Procedure identifies four provisions under which the Executive Officer may award a sole-source bid: 1) cost to prepare documents exceeds the cost for the consultant; 2) delay would result in the endangerment of public health; 3) services are only available from the sole-source; and 4) other circumstances exist identifying the sole-source as in the best interests of the District.

This request for a sole-source bid is made under provisions 2) and 4). In order for the analysis to be completed in time for the 2007 AQMP, the project has to start immediately for its incorporation into the socioeconomic report slated for completion by early 2007. Moreover, sufficient in-house are not available for this project.

Dr. Leland Deck and Ms. Lauraine Chestnut of Stratus Consulting will continue to be the lead for the proposed action. Dr. Deck is an internationally recognized expert in benefit-cost analysis and risk assessment of air pollution policies. As Principal Investigator for multiple contracts with the U.S. EPA, Dr. Deck conducted the detailed economic benefit analyses for a wide variety of air regulations. Ms. Chestnut specializes in health benefit assessments. She has synthesized the epidemiological literature on the human health effects of air pollutants and applied this information in numerous risk assessments. She has also conducted an epidemiological study on the effects of ambient air quality on respiratory health. She has published three books and several peer-reviewed articles. She was on the U.S. EPA’s Science Advisory Board’s Advisory Council on Clean Air Compliance Analysis and conducted the health benefit update for the 1997 AQMP. Both Dr. Deck and Ms. Chestnut have over 20 years of experience in the field of health benefit assessment.

Resource Impacts

Sufficient funds are available in the FY 2006-07 Professional and Special Services budget.