TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE IN ENGINEERING, OCCURENCE ASSESSMENT & ANALYTICAL METHODS The 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments specified high risk contaminants for which Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the responsibility to develop drinking water standards which requires additional analysis to be conducted, and to meet the Congressionally manadated dates by which these regulations must be developed for national drinking water programs for water utilities. The high priority contaminants are: arsenic, radon, sulfate, microorganisms, disinfectants and disinfection by-products. The last three are large groups containing numerous specific contaminants. EPA is to develop these standards meeting new requirements for regulatory analysis including cost/benefit analysis and impact assessments for sensitive populations, as well as higher procedural, public involvement and documentation requirements. The dates of the passage of the SDWA amendment and award of contract 68-C6-0059 to SAIC coincided very closely and have required making changes to the contract capacity. The US EPA intendsto negotiate on a sole source basis, an increase to the Level of Effort for this contract of 27,000 hours and $3.01 million. This is necessary due to Congressionally mandated deadlines which fall in the lst quarter of FY 99. Negotiations shall be conducted pursuant to the authority of 42 U.S.C. 253 (c)(1), which allows for negotiations without full and open competition if there is only one responsible source. The basis for the determination is that only SAIC could has the expertise and knowledge to continue the work currently being done under the active work assignments for this contract. It is critical that the activities be a continuation of the previously conducted research and analysis in order to ensure the reliability of the data and without duplication of costs or previous effort. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. Sources wishing to be considered must submit documentation to the office identified above which establishes that (1) the company has the expertise to do the analysis required from the current point forward, (2) they have the facilities and personnel available; and (3) that they can provide continuity in the studies and analysis required to meet the Congressional Mandate and to maintain the reliability of the data without duplication of costs or effort. Documentation should be submitted within 15 days of publication of this notice. See Notes 22 and 26 WEB: Office of Acquisition Management-Cincinnati Contracts, http://www.epa.gov/oam/cinn_cin. E-MAIL: ketchum-linda@epamail.epa.gov, ketchum-linda@epamail.epa.gov. Posted 09/16/98 (W-SN250608).

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