A--Development of a System for Dry Inoculation of Coupons

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) is seeking a contractor to develop an aerosol deposition system for use in the systematic decontamination studies. This system will be used by the U.S. EPA National Homeland Security Research Center (NHSRC) Decontamination and Consequence Management Division?s (DCMD) systematic decontamination program to evaluate the efficacy of decontamination technologies. The NHSRC is currently investigating various decontamination technologies for high value building materials contaminated with Bacillus anthracis. Current ongoing studies inoculate building material coupons using a syringe (liquid droplets). However, the likely dissemination method for B. anthracis is aerosol dispersion, thus building materials will be contaminated by dry deposition. Liquid inoculation may yield non-comparable decontamination efficacy results to actual event decontamination efforts for porous materials such as cinder block and wood. A system for the dry inoculation of building material coupons is needed to ensure comparable efficacy results during decontamination efforts. In response to the need for reproducibly dosing building material coupons with dry B. anthracis, the DCMD is seeking to develop an aerosol deposition system for use in the systematic decontamination studies. The aerosol deposition system includes an aerosol generator and all pumps, blowers, etc. necessary for the system to operate. The system shall be able to repeatedly dose coupons with user defined spore loadings in the range of 100 to 100,000,000 spores per coupon with an uncertainty of 20%. The area of the coupons is 7 square cm. The terminal velocities of these spores shall mimic those expected in an anthrax release. The system shall be applicable to all building materials of interest, specifically: painted and unpainted cinder block, stainless steel ductwork, industrial carpet, decorative laminate, ceiling tile, painted wallboard, and glass. The system shall be able to uniformly dose (all coupons will receive a dose of plus or minus 20% of the user set dose) at least twenty-five 20 mm x 35 mm coupons during a single deposition and the coupons shall be easy to remove, ensuring minimal disruption of the deposited particulate matter. This procurement shall be conducted using Full and Open competition procedures. The proposed contract will be a firm fixed price contract. The NAICS code is 541710. The solicitation, PR-CI-06-10950, is anticipated to be available on or about July 24, 2006 and will be posted on the EPA?s home page on the World Wide Web (www.epa.gov). The direct link URL for the RFP when issued is http://www.epa.gov/oam/cinn_cmd. It is the responsibility of offerors to frequently check the EPA website address for updates or changes. No hard copies will be available. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which will be considered by the agency.