Description
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA)Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW), Standards and Risk Management Division, has a requirement for a contractor to provide technical support services that will support EPA?s development of National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for various contaminants as well as requirements for ground water and Underground Injection Control in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Under the Safe Drinking Water Act, the USEPA has the responsibility to protect public health through drinking water safety. By ensuring public water systems nationwide meet national standards, the public?s exposure to contaminants in drinking water is reduced, and public health is protected. This requirement will support EPA?s development of National Primary Drinking Water Regulations for various contaminants as well as requirements for ground water and Underground Injection Control (UIC) in accordance with the Safe Drinking Water Act. Responsible offerors shall demonstrate an ability to provide the level of effort, material, equipment, and facilities necessary to provide timely, professional engineering, economic analysis, technical and administrative services necessary to investigate chemical, radiological and microbiological contaminant occurrences to characterize drinking water threats. The contractor will be required to collect data and materials and provide factual studies of a technical, scientific, engineering, or statistical nature. The contractor shall provide technical support in the development of analytical methods and performance criteria for treatment/occurrence studies and for compliance monitoring, and in the evaluation of new analytical methods, including screening methods, to meet the criteria developed by the U.S. EPA. The contractor shall provide information and technical support to EPA in performing assessments of risk associated with exposure to chemical, radiological, and microbiological contaminants in drinking water, and in conducting analysis using applicable risk assessment methods. The contractor shall review previously published models for contaminant occurrence, formation, and transport in source water and water treatment plants and distribution systems, to facilitate the development of new models or the modification of existing models In addition, the contractor shall also provide logistical and administrative support in accordance with specific written work assignments to support the Agency?s development of drinking water, ground water, and UIC regulations, future regulatory and programmatic decisions, and implementation of its policies and programs. The resulting contract will include management of multiple, concurrent work assignments which will require long-term as well as quick turn-around responses essential to the statutory responsibilities of the Office of Water. The proposed contract type will be a level-of-effort cost-plus-fixed-fee contract consisting of a base period performance of twelve months, followed by nine (9) optional performance periods of 12 months each, for a total potential performance period of ten (10) years. The base level of effort for each period is anticipated to be 8,500 professional labor hours. Each period also is anticipated to have 17,000 hours in optional professional labor hours. There will be a maximum combined total of 255,000 direct labor professional hours, base and all optional quantities, over the ten (10) year life of the contract. The standard EPAAR solicitation provisions (EPAAR 1552.209-70 and 1552.209-72) requiring an offeror to certify that it is unaware of any potential Conflict of Interest or to disclose any potential Conflict of Interest of which it is aware will be a part of the solicitation. The standard EPAAR solicitation provision (EPAAR 1552.209-71) requiring a contractor to make full disclosure of any actual or potential Conflict of Interest discovered after contract award will also be a part of the solicitation. In addition, the contractor shall be subject to the clause LIMITATION OF FUTURE CONTRACTING (EPAAR 1552.209-74), which may limit the contractor?s eligibility to perform work as a prime Contractor or subcontractor under an ensuing EPA contract, further, that for the life of this contract the contractor shall be ineligible to enter into a contract to perform work for any of the following types of firms unless otherwise authorized by the Contracting Officer: (1) Firms that own, operate, or invest in waste management/waste disposal firms. (2) Firms that are subject to or may be subject to EPA water regulations. (3) Firms that manufacture/sell/import water treatment chemicals and/or equipment (including point-of-use/point-of-entry treatment devices). (4) Firms that are or support voluntary consensus standard bodies that set third party voluntary consensus technical standards (e.g., materials specifications, test methods, sampling procedures, business practices, etc.) (5) Firms that produce or distribute bottled water for sale. (6) Firms that own or operate public water systems. (7) Firms that own or operate regulated Underground Injection Control (UIC) Wells. This requirement is a total small business set-aside. The applicable NAICS code is 541611. The projected start date of the contract is June 1, 2007. The solicitation is expected to be posted to the internet on or about December 24, 2006, as Solicitation Number PR-CI-06-10923 and may be accessed through the EPA?s home page on the World Wide Web (www.epa.gov) or through the direct link URL: http://www.epa.gov/oam/cinn_cmd. A draft copy of the Performance Work Statement will be posted to http://www.epa.gov/oam/cinn_cmd for review. No hard copies of the solicitation shall be provided. It is the responsibility of the offerors to frequently check the EPA website for updates or changes. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which shall be considered by the agency. See Numbered Notes: 1 and 26.