NAICS Code: 334513 This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) Part 12. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation. Quotations are being requested and a written solicitation willnot be issued. This requirement is being issued per FAR 11.104, for brand name or equal components. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 05-26. The associated NAICS code is 334513 and the small business size standard is 500 employees. The United Stated Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 2's Division of Environmental Planning and Protection is engaged in monitoring in New York-New Jersey Harbor and offshore areas of the New York Bight which requires measurements of water column physical and chemical characteristics including temperature, salinity, depth, dissolved oxygen, photosynthetically active radiation, chlorophyll auto-fluorescence, and turbidity. The instrument will primarily be deployed from a small research vessel on-station at a fixed location for a short period of time. In addition, samples of water will be collected from three depths at each location. EPA recognizes that the optimal Conductivity Temperature and Depth (CTD) recorder depends critically on the intended application, especially with respect to accuracy, resolution, and mode of deployment. EPA seeks a single instrument package that serves the needs for sampling and measuring inshore waters from 4 to 20 m depth and in continental shelf waters up to 100 m depth. EPA Region 2 has reviewed various commercially available CTD packages via the Internet and with the assistance and consultation of experts within EPA Office of Research and Development, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Center, and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection Harbor Survey. This review identified the Sea-Bird product line as particularly, perhaps uniquely well-suited for the proposed work. Specifically, the Region has selected the Sea-Bird Model SBE 19Plus Seacat Plus Profiler and the SBE55 ECO Water Sampler with 6 bottles and SBE33 Deck Unit with the following probes: SBE 43 Dissolved Oxygen Sensor, WET Labs ECO-FL-NTU(RT) chlorophyll and turbidity sensor, WET Labs Transmissometer, LiCor LI-193 PAR Sensor, and Biospherical Scalar PAR Reference. In addition, the primary use of this equipment will be to implement a monitoring program in conjunction with another survey vessel operated by EPA's Division of Environmental Science and Assessment which already has a Sea-Bird CTD (Model SBE25). The selection of a Sea-Bird product for this procurement will ensure that datasets collected by the two vessels are 100% compatible and thus minimize the number of field validation and verification samples needed for quality assurance. In addition, the interchangeability of individual sensors and the package itself will minimize lost survey time due to equipment malfunctions. Therefore the specifications provided above are those associated with a specific package available from Sea-Bird; other providers will need to demonstrate that they can meet the following salient characteristics: The CTD shall meet the following specifications: - Be powered by internal rechargeable batteries that can be recharged without removing batteries from unit. Battery charging should be rapid, near 2 h; - Operate in both of 2 modes, 1) log data internally with a capacity no less than 8MB data storage and 2) transmit data to the surface in real-time via a sea cable and an RS232 interface; - Log data at a range of rates from 1 to minimum 4 scans per second, user configurable; - Have the capability to profile up to 350 m in seawater; - Be housed in a durable external cage to protect the all components from mechanical shock; - Allow minimum of four additional data streams (single channel) beyond conductivity, pressure, and temperature. The CTD shall have highly accurate sensors of the following types with stated specifications: - Conductivity sensor with range of 0 to 7, accuracy of ? 0.001, and precision of ? 0.001 Siemens/meter: - Temperature range 0-35, ? 0.01, precision ? 0.01 degrees Celsius; - Depth range 0-500, accuracy ?0.5, precision ?0.1 meter; - Dissolved oxygen range 0 to 120%, accuracy ?2%, precision ?1% saturation; - Photo-synthetically active radiation (4-pi scalar, 400 to 700 nm) range 0 to 3000, accuracy ?5, precision ?5 ?E/m2/s?CTD package shall also include a 2-pi scalar surface PAR reference sensor and include necessary hardware to integrate that signal; - Chlorophyll auto-fluorescence: excitation near 470 nm emission near 695 nm (long pass). Range 0-50ug/l, accuracy ? 0.1, precision ? 0.1 ?g/L; - Optical backscattering: excitation near 700 nm. Range: 0-25, accuracy 0.05, precision 0.05 NTU; - Light attenuation/transmissivity: 10 cm path length. All above sensors are required to be extremely stable, with small instrument drift, thus eliminating the need for calibration more than once per year. The Rosette Water Sampler shall meet the following specifications: - Ability to collect a minimum of 8 liters at three depths (multiple bottles are acceptable) per deployment; - Due to limitations in vertical clearance between the aft-deck and the A-frame used to deploy the unit the overall vertical dimensions when assembled with CTD are not to exceed 44 inches; - Configured to allow collection of samples at preprogrammed water depths or upon command at operators discretion; - Deck command unit to control bottle closing; - Deployable without CTD. Because water quality in the environments that we intend to sample is inherently variable on a variety of scales, including very small scales, all water quality sensors shall be arranged serially in a pumped flow configuration. Accordingly, post-processing software provided with the instrument shall be capable of aligning the readings from each sensor by applying appropriate lags to the data. The post-processing / real-time processing software shall: - Employ a graphical user interface to communicate with and operate the CTD and rosette; - Operate on a Windows XP platform; - Provide real-time data in graphical format; - Calculate a variety of derived seawater parameters including salinity, density, surface and aquatic PAR ratio, and buoyancy frequency; - Package shall include hardware/software for integrating navigation information from GPS (GPS unit itself is not to be included in this procurement). The vendor shall supply a 100 m non load-bearing underwater data cable to connect the CTD to a computer platform or deck unit (This cable is to be provided in two 50 meter lengths with appropriate terminations). The vendor shall supply software to operate the CTD so that operational parameters can be easily set to achieve deployment objectives. The following are required line items (or equivalent): CLIN 0001: Sea-Bird Model SBE 19Plus Seacat Plus Profiler, configured with the sensors listed above - Quantity 1; CLIN 0002: SBE55 ECO Water Sampler with 6 bottles - Quantity 2; CLIN 0003: SBE33 Deck Command Unit with all necessary interface cables - Quantity 2. The vendor must provide evidence that clearly demonstrates that the proposed equipment meets the salient characteristics identified above and provide a list of Government agencies, including name and phone number for point of contact, that have utilized similarly configured equipment. Delivery of the instrument shall be FOB Destination (shipping cost included in the item price) within 30 days of receipt of order. Delivery, inspection and acceptance will be at: US Environmental Protection Agency, Division of Environmental Planning and Protection, Dredging, Sediments, and Oceans Team, 290 Broadway, New York NY 10007. The Government intends to issue a fixed price purchase order resulting from this solicitation to the responsive, responsible vendor whose quote represents the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors, in order of importance, will be used for evaluation purposes: 1. Meets all salient characteristics described above. Datasets must be provided that demonstrate performance and reliability in vertical profiling applications (rather than moored). These datasets will be reviewed to determine performance at descent rates between 0.1-0.25 m/s and across sharp water column gradients 2. Repair and calibration facilities within the contiguous U.S. (lower 48 states) 3. Past performance of similarly configured instruments 4. Manufacturer's required/recommended frequency of calibration and datasets that document sensor drift between calibrations 5. Interchangeability and compatibility of probes with other EPA-owned CTD equipment on the OSV Bold and SV Clean Waters (i.e., Sea-Bird SBE11 and SBE25) 6. Price. Vendors doing business with the Federal Government are required to be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database. Registration information can be found at www.ccr.gov. All vendors are to include with their quote a copy of FAR Provision 52.212-3. The following FAR clauses apply to this acquisition: 52.204-6, Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number; 52.204-7, Central Contractor Registration; 52.211-6, Brand Name or Equal; 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items; 52-212.4 Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items; 52-212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items. The following additional FAR clauses, cited in Clause 52.212-5 apply: 52.222-19 Child Labor Cooperation with Authorities and Remedies; 52.222-21 Prohibitions of Segregated Facilities; 52.222-26 Equal Opportunity; 52.222-35 Equal Opportunity for Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era and Other Eligible Veterans, 52-225-1 Buy American Act-Supplies; 52.232-33 Payment by Electronic Funds Transfer-Central Contractor Registration. FAR clauses can be found at http://acquisition.gov/far/index.html. All technical questions are to be sent via email to
[email protected]. Technical questions regarding this RFQ must be submitted by September 10, 2008. All responsible sources may submit a quote to Karen Giacobbe, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 290 Broadway, 27th Floor, New York, NY 10007.