Inactive
Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)
Notice ID:68HERC21R0232
Technical Support for Implementation of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule and Drinking Water Standards Development THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS FOR WRITTEN INFORMATION ONLY. THIS IS NOT...
Technical Support for Implementation of the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule and Drinking Water Standards Development THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT SYNOPSIS FOR WRITTEN INFORMATION ONLY. THIS IS NOT A SOLICITATION ANNOUNCEMENT FOR PROPOSALS AND NO CONTRACT WILL BE AWARDED FROM THIS ANNOUNCEMENT. NO REIMBURSEMENT WILL BE MADE FOR ANY COSTS ASSOCIATED WITH PROVIDING INFORMATION IN RESPONSE TO THIS ANNOUNCEMENT AND ANY FOLLOW-UP REQUESTS. NO TELEPHONE CALLS REQUESTING A SOLICITATION WILL BE ACCEPTED OR ACKNOWLEDGED. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is performing a ¿market research¿ for small businesses in preparation for a future procurement. Information submitted in response to this notice is merely used for internal market research purposes and no feedback will be offered to the interested parties that submit capability statements. The EPA has need for contractor support to provide technical, analytical, and administrative support services for the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR). The purpose of this acquisition is to establish an on-going contracting mechanism in Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water (OGWDW) to support the Standards and Risk Management Division (SRMD) with both, specific programmatic needs and evolving Agency policies and programs. The resulting contract may be used, with OGWDW¿s permission, by related organizations in the Office of Water (OW) and other parts of EPA when those organizations require technical support within the scope of this Performance Work Statement (PWS). The EPA, OW is responsible for implementing the provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) section 1445(a)(2), ¿Monitoring Program for Unregulated Contaminants.¿ This section requires that, once every five years, EPA issue a new list of no more than 30 unregulated contaminants to be monitored by public water systems. This Unregulated Monitoring Rule (UCMR) requires public water systems to collect occurrence data for contaminants that may be present in drinking water but are not yet subject to EPA¿s drinking water standards set under SDWA. This rule benefits public health by providing EPA and other interested parties with scientifically valid data on the national occurrence of selected contaminants in drinking water. This dataset is one of the primary sources of information on occurrence, levels of exposure, and population exposure the Agency uses to develop regulatory decisions for contaminants in the public drinking water supply. SDWA requires that EPA (1) have direct implementation responsibilities (with state assistance through Partnership Agreements) (2) enter the monitoring data into the Agency's publicallypublicly available National Contaminant Occurrence Database (3) ensure that systems serving a population of 3,300 or more people, as well as a nationally representative sample of public water systems serving less than 3,300 people, are required to monitor. EPA must also vary the frequency and schedule for monitoring based on the number of persons served, the source of supply and the contaminants likely to be found. The proposed UCMR 5 rule (https://www.epa.gov/dwucmr/fifth-unregulated-contaminant-monitoring-rule) identifies three analytical methods to support water system monitoring for a total of 30 chemical contaminants, consisting of twenty-nine per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and one metal (lithium). To be considered a potential source, a firm must demonstrate they are able to provide the necessary personnel and services to support the effort delineated by the Performance Work Statement (PWS). The successful contractor shall provide all necessary labor skilled personnel, materials, and services in support of the efforts. A draft copy of the PWS is included as an attachment to this synopsis. Potential exists for an organizational Conflict of Interest (COI) under any resulting procurement. Therefore, for informational purposes areas of concerns are identified in the Attachment ¿Draft COI Requirements¿. Final COI documents will be provided in the solicitation. The applicable NAICS code is 541620 with a size standard of $16.5 million. It is anticipated that the contract will be a single award, cost plus fixed-fee/level-of-effort contract with a base period consisting of 12 months with four option periods of 12 months each. This would result in a total potential period of performance of five years. Total maximum level of effort for this five-year period of performance is anticipated to be 185,000 direct labor hours. ANY INTERESTED FIRM should submit a capability statement which demonstrates the firm¿s ability to perform the key requirements described above. Standard company brochures alone will not be considered a sufficient response to this Sources Sought Synopsis. The information provided in the capabilities statement should include: size status for the above referenced NAICS code (i.e. large, small); and and whether or not they are a certified Hubzone, 8(a), women-owned, small disadvantaged and/or service disabled veteran owned small business concern; point of contact; telephone number; email, and interest in proposing on the solicitation when issued. The anticipated solicitation release date is late November 2021, and the close date shall be approximately 30 days thereafter. The solicitation will be issued as a small business-set-aside. As a reminder, small businesses are required to perform at least 50 percent of the costs of the contract performance with their own personnel (See FAR 52.219-14) under a procurement set aside for small businesses. Notices of any modifications to this FBO procurement announcement, including Requests for Proposals and amendments, will be posted using the FedConnect web portal. FedConnect can be accessed at https://www.fedconnect.net/Fedconnect/. Interested parties are expected to download the solicitation and any subsequent amendments from the website and to monitor the status of the solicitation. All responsible sources may submit a proposal. Capabilities Statements in response to this Sources Sought Synopsis MUST BE SUBMITTED THROUGH THE FEDCONNECT PORTAL by 4:00 p.m. EST, on October 16, 2021. Any questions regarding the content of this Sources Sought Synopsis announcement must be submitted through the FedConnect portal. You must register with FedConnect to submit documents, questions, and to view responses. FedConnect can be accessed at https://www.fedconnect.net/Fedconnect/ where vendors can register. For assistance in registering or for other FedConnect technical questions please call the FedConnect Help Desk at (800) 899-6665. In addition, all vendors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM), as this facilitates registration for FedConnect. Please note that vendors MUST have their SAM profile set to ¿public,¿ otherwise FedConnect will not be able to access the SAM information required to validate vendor credentials. Registration may be completed and information regarding the registration process may be obtained at http://www.sam.gov. There is no charge for registration in SAM. A separate synopsis will be issued for the Request for Proposal (RFP) resulting from this Sources Sought posting. The point of contact is Contracting Officer, Brad Werwick, Werwick.brad@epa.gov. Phone calls will not be honored.
