Acme Vial & Glass Co Inc., of Paso Robles, CA for the purchase of scientific vials to hold fish larvae stored in ethanol so the vials must be made of borosilicate glass compatible with ethanol.

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Acquisition & Grants Office, Western Acquisition Division-Boulder, intends to negotiate, on a sole source basis, under authority of FAR 13.106-1(b)(1) only one responsible source, Acme Vial & Glass Co Inc., of Paso Robles, CA for the purchase of scientific vials to hold fish larvae stored in ethanol so the vials must be made of borosilicate glass compatible with ethanol. The sole source determination is based on the NOAA's, Office of NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) need to purchase from Acme Vial & Glass Co Inc., because only Acme has the type of vials and the quality control required to ensure the samples are not lost. The reason for this sole source is the following information provided by the Technical Group: "Acme Vials can provide the type of glass we must have. Other suppliers do not give us vials that are compatible with their (already owned Acme) use, even after we have explained what was needed. The use of vendors other than Acme has resulted in the loss of irreplaceable scientific samples. For this reason all other NOAA Fisheries Centers have agreed to exclusively use Acme for vials holding scientific samples processed at the Polish Sorting and Identification Center." Additional comments/explanations from the Technical Group are the following: "We cannot take the chance that valuable samples may be lost. Our samples are irreplaceable and very costly to obtain" and "Each year there is an advisory meeting of the three centers that send samples to Poland. Each center sends the number of vials that they are expected to need to the sorting center, where all supplies are combined. When the incorrect vials were used in Poland, all three centers were affected. Therefore, to avoid this problem, the centers have agreed to all use the same vials from the same vendor (Acme), who also has consistently had the lowest prices. This agreement was verbal and was relayed by the program managers to the personnel who are responsible for ordering supplies." The period of performance is a Base Year and 4 Option Periods. The Base period of performance to provide these vials is 7/15/2016 - 7/14/2017 and the Option Periods will each run consecutively for a year each. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals and no solicitation package is available. However, firms that believe they can fully meet the Government's requirements may submit substantiating documentation in writing to the identified point of contact within 15 days after publication of this synopsis. Such documentation will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to conduct a competitive procurement, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.