Inactive

The USGS has a requirement to procure operation of a NADP/NTN wet atmospheric monitoring station.. The USGS is aware of no other source that can provide the above. Therefore, it intends to make an awa... The USGS has a requirement to procure operation of a NADP/NTN wet atmospheric monitoring station.. The USGS is aware of no other source that can provide the above. Therefore, it intends to make an award to TRM, unless it is contacted by any vendor who believes they can provide the same product/service. Vendors are invited to contact the Contract Specialist, Michael Lepe, via email at mlepe@usgs.gov no later than 12:00 PM EST, Wednesday, 01/27/2021 with an affirmative answer. Sole Source Justification States the Following Part: 6. Rationale Supporting Use of Citation in No. 5. The Southeast Research Station is uniquely qualified to continue providing the requirement due to prior involvement in this program. Faculty and staff researchers have the experience, knowledge, and expertise to complete the requirement without training or time spent in learning how to operate the equipment. The land on which the field equipment is located is owned by the University, as is the building containing the analytical equipment and the equipment itself. It is essential that this be accomplished without loss of continuity as well as incurring delays. The Southeast Research Station is the only known source qualified to collect this information on acid precipitation levels in the area. The option year 4 cost does not include the cost of additional training and travel that would be required if a new alternate vendor were selected to operate the site. This additional cost of travel for training is estimated at $1,500. It does also not include the cost of site relocation which would be required if a new vendor was selected for site operation, since only LSU - Southeast Research Station personnel have authorization to work in this research area owned by the University. The cost to relocate an NADP/NTN site is estimated from prior site relocations to be in the range of $6,000 to $12,000 depending on the distance, topography and improvements needed at the new site such as AC power installation. USGS is responsible for the operation of nine atmospheric deposition sites where the land and the site is owned by another organization, agency or individual and are in restricted scientific research areas, LA30 is one of these nine sites. It is a mutually beneficial scientific and technical partnership between this organization that has purview over the site location and desire the information collected from this site. USGS needs information gathered from this site as part of a national network for national-scale measurement of the status and trends in wet deposition. Moving the site would result in a break of the long-term environment monitoring record, i.e., a new site location data would not be comparable to the previous site, which typically has continuous monitoring data back to the early 1980¿s. The operating organization will not allow a third-party vendor to operate this site or have access to the land, site or equipment. It is the organizations private land and they will only allow access to a trusted individual who has an existing professional relationship with the organization. Some equipment is owned by the USGS and other equipment essential to operating the site such as platforms, electrical power service, access paths, fences, sample processing field laboratory building and roads at the site is owned by the operating organization, agency, or individual. Supporting this site requires 52 trips per 12-month period to this location, in rural and very remote areas on land and at scientific research areas that are not open to the public or open to weekly visits by individuals from other private organization. In no case does the USGS own the land or have control over site access. The primary reason the USGS is not operating this site is because, despite having offices in every state with multiple field offices in most states, we do not have the means or permission to access this site. It is cost prohibitive to USGS to operate this site therefore, USGS is funding the scientific activity and the sponsoring organization maintains control of the site access. USGS offices do operate a number of other sites where we do have the means and access to site locations, but the list of nine sites where we seek sole source awards are the "partnership" site locations where we do not have the means and permission to access the sites. A competitive action would imply that we could unilaterally remove the land-owning and operating organizations or individuals from this activity and replace them with a private entity. This is not the case, since these multi- decade long research and monitor