Inactive Total Small Business Set-Aside (FAR 19.5)

NOTICE OF INTENT FOR SOLE SOURCE The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in Research Triangle Park, NC, intends to award a sole source Purchase Order under authority of Federal Acquisition Reg... NOTICE OF INTENT FOR SOLE SOURCE The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in Research Triangle Park, NC, intends to award a sole source Purchase Order under authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Subpart 13.106-1(b) "Soliciting from a single source", to Deron Smith to procure one (1) year of software development contract support, plus two (2) option periods, each 12 months in duration. BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) in Athens, GA is currently having software applications developed for use by U.S. communities, under Purchase Order (PO) EP-17-W-000138, awarded 09/18/2017 to Deron Smith. This PO was competitively awarded as a small business set-aside. The applications will be used by communities to evaluate and make decisions about the sustainability of their environmental, social, educational, economic, and health aspects. Communities would use applications, data and statistics in addition to other local factors when making decisions. The applications would use several snapshots of county level data for hundreds of variables related to various community aspects such as environment, social, education, economy, health, activism etc. Statistical techniques will be used to aggregate data into higher level domains and indices. The applications will allow addition of future datasets when such data become available. The applications will be built to facilitate the three aspects of interoperability: discovery, evaluation, and access/integration. Discovery refers to how a user would discover a component. Evaluation refers to how a user would evaluate the component to determine if it meets their requirements. In addition to determining suitability, evaluation also provides transparency which is paramount in a regulatory environment. Integration refers to how the user would integrate the component in their own workflow. EPA plans to facilitate discovery by publishing component APIs on EPA's Environmental Data Gateway web site (https://edg.epa.gov) and other federal government registries. EPA plans to use best practices and technologies to facilitate component evaluation and integration. PURPOSE AND OBJECTIVES: The objective of this contract is to continue the development of software applications to support the U.S communities requiring the use of the applications for their environmental needs. Interoperability and reusability will be the guiding principles for the development of these applications. The applications will be componentized as much as possible to maximize reusability. Component interfaces will be implemented using well established technology standards such as RESTful web services. Also, the components will be documented in a consistent way to facilitate transparency and evaluation. Well established database technologies such as relational database management systems and SQL will be used to store, retrieve, and manage application data. EPA plans to develop and release desktop versions of the databases and applications. The key would be to reuse components and applications developed for the web in desktop version. EPA is also planning to make incremental public releases of the web version components and applications. Source codes will be stored in a Git repository. Web services will be developed to expose functionality of the components through standard web technologies. Some data will be stored in SQLite Database management system. The front-end web application will be developed using Django framework, HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript on a Linux server. SOLE SOURCE JUSTIFICATION: NERL has been using contractor Deron Smith since September 2017 to develop and deploy scientific applications and the supporting computational infrastructure for the current contract. EPA still has a need to continue this service. The cloud infrastructure, architecture, and methodology designed by Mr. Smith, using his own proprietary and unique techniques, will be used in the follow-on requirement. To award to another contractor at this time, would require a significant investment in time resulting in unacceptable delays and substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. Therefore, it would be more beneficial to the Government to award a sole source contract to Deron Smith for this requirement. AUTHORITY AND FAR REFERENCE: The circumstance permitting is Subpart 13.106-1(b) "Soliciting from a single source". All interested parties who believe they can provide the required services should fully explain their capabilities and qualifications in writing within fifteen (15) calendar days from the date of this announcement and provide itemized pricing that is sufficient to make a determination that competition is feasible. The intent of this notice is to determine if any other source(s) exist, and therefore, no solicitation is available. Consequently, anyone failing to provide the aforementioned and instead chooses to merely submit a routine letter requesting a copy of the statement of work or more information about the project will be ignored. The information received to this notice will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct a competitive procurement. Please submit response ONLY to Mr. Sammie T. Jones at jones.sammie@epa.gov. No telephone or faxed requests will be honored.