Specifications include, but are not limited to: The STATE is soliciting proposals for the efficient and exhaustive evidence search, collection, documentation, and presentation necessary for the STATE to make and support a navigability or non-navigability determination of certain lakes and streams in the State of North Dakota under the Federal test for State title purposes under the Equal Footing Doctrine. Contractor will research published resources, such as government reports; climate and hydrologic data; state, county, and local histories; newspaper articles; and subject matter books; as well as non-published resources, such as historical societies and museums, to locate and produce available historical information that shows the use or the susceptibility of use of the waterbodies as a highway for commerce or travel in their ordinary condition as of 1889. This would include historical use of the waterbodies by watercraft for the transportation of people or goods up or downstream, records of log drives on water or over ice, commercial waterfowl operations, commercial pleasure boating, or other examples of use of the waterbody as a highway for commerce. The Contractor will locate and produce any available hydrologic and hydraulic data for the waterbodies at the time of statehood at the time any waterbody was used as a highway for commerce or travel. The Contractor will first examine the records most likely to produce the most complete results in the most efficient manner and at the lowest cost possible. Although the Contractor’s focus will be on the water bodies listed in Exhibit 1, the STATE understands that records of navigability may include information about or discuss other waterbodies in North Dakota that are or may be navigable in fact. If information concerning other waterbodies or tributaries is encountered during the course of the research, the STATE requests that those records also be collected and provided to the STATE. The Contractor will write a summary of findings report for each waterbody listed in Exhibit 1, which must include: a waterbody description, all resources examined, an opinion as to whether or not the waterbody or a segment or segments of the waterbody appears to meet the Federal test of navigability for state title purpose, evidence supporting that opinion, documentation, maps, source material, and citations.
