The Environmental Protection Agency intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Purdue University. Contractor services are needed to sample water, soils, and manures at the Purdue University Animal Science Research and Education Center (ASREC) that have been amended with manures or lagoon/manure pit effluents of cattle, swine, and poultry in order for the EPA to analyze and evaluate concentrations of fecal bacterial indicators and pathogens including Escherichia coli, enterococci, Salmonella sp., and E. coli O157:H7 as well as the variability of host-specific PCR biomarkers for fecal pollution in tile drainage and upstream and downstream of agricultural fields. The contractor will be required to maintain and provide weather data for the Purdue University ASREC as well as flow data on Marshall Creek and contributing drainage tiles at the sampling locations. EPA research indicates that Purdue University is uniquely qualified to meet this requirement because the Purdue Animal Sciences Research and Education Center site uniquely provides access to barns and livestock animals for fecal sampling, livestock manure management/treatment system and land applicators or spray irrigators for sampling land-applied manures and lagoon effluents, the agricultural crop fields for soils sampling, and access to Marshall Creek and it's contributing tile drainage outlets for bi-weekly and rainfall-associated flow sampling. Complete control over all of the fields adjacent to the stream is critical to ascertain the information on application practices and rates to affect a mass balance in the system. Purdue University holds the exclusive right to work within their own facility which contains the conditions paramount for the success of the study and that are not duplicated by any other midwest Combined Animal Feedlot Operation. Any firm believing itself capable of meeting EPA’s requirements may submit technical documentation to establish the potential of complying with the statement of work. Such documentation must be submitted to the point of contact within 15 days (before August 27, 2008 at 12:00 PM EST) of electronic posting of this notice. A determination not to compete the proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement or to proceed on a sole source basis. The applicable NAICS code is 541712. Documentation should be submitted to Jamie Sclafani at
[email protected].