Oppts Contract Support Group, Environmental Protection Agency, Fairchild Building -- 7th Floor, 499 S. Capitol Street, S.W., Washington, DC 20024

R -- LEAD HOTLINE SERVICES SOL PR-HQ-97-11415 POC Contracting Officer, Mark Thomas, 202-260-3192; Contracting Specialist, Erich Fischer, 202-260-1434 WEB: Lead Hotline, www.epa.gov/oam. E-MAIL: Contracting Specialist, Fischer.Erich@epamail.epa.gov. THIS PROCUREMENT HAS BEEN DESIGNATED AS AN 8(A) SMALL BUSINESS SET-ASIDE!! EPA is charged with developing and running a national federally-funded lead hotline and clearinghouse under Title X, of the Lead-based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 as amended by Title IV of the Toxic Substance Control Act, Section 405(e)(1) and (2). For the past four years the National Safety Council has operated the National Lead Information Center for the Chemical Management Division of OPPT under a cooperative agreement. The Agency determined it would be more appropriate for the statutorily-mandated clearinghouse and hotline to be conducted under a contract. The title of this request for proposals is "The National Lead Clearinghouse" (NLC). The purpose of this request is to solicit 8(a) companies to provide for the: (1) operation of an automated message system that quickly prompts the caller to leave their request information and mailing address on the answering machine in order to receive lead poisoning prevention information; (2) operation of a lead clearinghouse that supports the lead-based paint poison prevention program by responding to more specific and/or technical questions and/or requests on lead-related issues; and (3) creation and implementation of a lead information outreach program The majority of the NLC work will be telephone work, as identified by tasks 1 and 2 in the previous paragraph. The hotline is expected to respond to 8,000 to 11,000 calls per month via a toll-free phone number with approximately one half of the calls handled via the automated message system. The clearinghouse will also receive information requests via a fax number and the Internet with approximately 500 to 700 requests coming in per month.. Approximately sixty to seventy percent of the contacts (calls, faxes, Internet inquiries) will be handled under the automated message system and/or not require a call back. The rest will of the contacts will require contact with an information specialist. The average estimated call length is 4 minutes. (Appropriate responses shall include: properly identifying customer needs, performing required research and/or information retrieval, providing information over the telephone, making appropriate referrals, document fulfillment, and/or preparing written responses via E-Mail.) The contractor shall ensure that all responses are based on up-to-date and appropriate EPA-approved materials. Typical duties will include the following: -- -- Provide information contained in EPA's lead poisoning regulations and requirements, proposed regulations, health advisories, public information materials, and catalog and distribute other materials provided by EPA, HUD, CDC and their grantees concerning lead poisoning and children. -- Provide updates on the status of lead regulations, status of emerging issues and policies. -Provide information on the availability of technical publications, guidance documents, regulations, and public information materials on lead paint poisoning. Take and process orders for requested materials and documents. -- Provide referrals to state, tribal and territorial lead contacts, state, tribal, territorial and local health departments, parent groups for lead poisoned children, other federal agencies that deal-with lead in paint, accredited laboratories to analyze lead paint and lead in water, EPA Regional lead contacts, or redirect callers to more appropriate sources for the requested information, such as other Hotlines or the EPA Homepage. -Provide people with information on speakers who can address a variety of issues related to lead poisoning and lead poisoning prevention.-Develop camera-ready fact sheets, sets of questions and answers, pamphlets, brochures, display materials, and annotated publications lists and other materials pertaining to lead paint poisoning prevention for EPA review. -- Keep up-to-date on reference and training materials that may be potential resources for the NLC customers by serving as the repository of a data base containing information and samples of lead education and outreach materials from public and private organizations in the U.S. -- Develop and distribute to approximately 3,000-5,000 people an eight-page quarterly newsletter. -- Create and maintain an Internet site. The NLC contractor will coordinate the day-to-day operations of the NLC, supervise quality control, supervise staff, and establish and maintain regular communication with the EPA Project Officer. The contractor shall provide staff coverage for Hotline operations, with trained personnel during operating hours. The contractor shall provide callers with the option of conversing with a bilingual (Spanish-English) staff member during operating hours. The contractor may have to respond to 1500 contacts a day when a major press event occurs or a major new lead rule is published. The number of hours of contact handling be extended by the exercise of a Contract Interval Capacity Expansion Order (CICEO). The contractor shall ensure that all personnel assigned to work on this contract are intellectually and technically competent to receive information requests, perform required processing and research functions in a resourceful manner, and provide complete, accurate and concise responses. The contractor shall be in a metropolitan area that has access to a Federal government telephone system. The government will provide a central office dial tone with FTS domestic long distance service. The contractor shall provide a telephone system and maintenance which would permit direct interface with the Government provided phone lines and FTS 2000 service. (See the "Telephone Service" section for more information.) The contractor shall have the capability to facilitate on-line research, prepare written reports and documents, maintain an data base of regulatory and program material using various software programs; provide storage for 50,000 documents annually; shall have the computer capability to track and document contacts, locational information on the contacts (address, zip code), documents/information requested, and time spent on request by the information specialist; The contractor shall have the capability to fax documents; shall perform duplicating and copying. Total amount of copies per month is estimated at 5000. All duplicating and copying shall be in accordance with the Printing clause of the contract. The contractor shall provide a telephone system and maintenance which would permit direct interface with the Government-provided telephone lines and FTS 2000 service. The contractor shall use FTS 2000 telephone service in accordance with OIRM Policy Manual 2100, dated 12/21/94, Chapter 7, "Telecommunications" for both incoming and outbound domestic service. The Government shall provide access to FTS 2000 TDD services and other services that may become available such as translation services. The contractor will coordinate with the EPA FTS 2000 business office who will produce monthly reports on traffic analysis to the hotline. The contractor shall only use EPA-provided telephone services for the conduct of official government business. The contractor shall be responsible for ensuring that the facilities, equipment and/or services provided function with FTS 2000 and can reliably produce and maintain records which are sufficient to evaluate performance criteria include hourly, daily, weekly and monthly telephone statistics. EPA will provide a briefing on FTS 2000 services and capabilities. The contractor shall provide maintenance of the system without loss of service during core hours and ensure that proper engineering practices are used, especially with the interface for government provided services. Email the Contracts Specialist at fischer.erich@epamail.epa.gov for a copy of the bid package. Due to the large volume of interest anticipated, we will not be able to return phone calls. You may be able to retrieve a copy of the bid package on the EPA Contracts Internet site on or about July 20th. The EPA site is www.epa.gov/oam. (0168)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0053 19970619\R-0006.SOL)